Reflections of a Semester in Paris
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"-- This quote from the classic Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities about revolutionary Paris is kind of a good way to summarize my time here, as long as the emphasis is on the best of times. I have been living in my favorite city for four 
months now and traveling all around Europe (6 new countries in all) and been having incredible experiences. At the same time this was perhaps the most challenging time of my life. I forced myself to push myself beyond where I previously thought possible, deal with being away from my friends and family and missing stuff at school. All the while trying to truly manage my money for the first time (often, quite badly).
I have learned invaluable lessons that I will keep with me and I have become a person who will return home very grateful for and confident in my experience. I return home to the US in a few weeks and I do not know where the time has gone! In one sense, I feel like I was just on the plane coming over here....but in another sense this place has gotten to feel like home and I feel like I have been here forever.
I have made memories that cannot be explained nor any picture can ca
pture (no matter how hard I try). I have stood face to face with history and loved every minute of creating my own. I have been from Abbey Road in London, to the beach nightclubs in Barcelona, to the lavender fields of Provence, to eating real pierogies with my mom in Krakow, to walking down the pub filled streets that make up an Irish St. Patricks Day, to learning how the EU works at the source in Belgium, to touching what left of some of the biggest historical moments ever in Berlin, to the land of tulips and wooden shoes in Amsterdam, to catching a glimpse of my own reflection in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, to experiencing the glitz and glamour of being backstage at Paris fashion week.
I am going to go home a changed person, and while I will be so excited to see my family and friends for the first few weeks I am home, I know I will be craving the bakeries on every corner, picnics under the Eiffel Tower, and the excitement of never quite knowing what the day will bring. It will be a hard transition back but I will always treasure every moment I have had here, the good, the bad, and the amazing.