Concluding JFRC, starting summer, and vagabond backpacking

Schools out for summer :-D. I didnt even think about the fact that it was summer until somebody else told me, since I'm still over here I just grouped it together with this semester. But can you kick off a summer in a better way than a couple weeks of backpacking through Europe with friends? That sounds too ideal, the type of thing your older sibling did when you were younger and you always dreamed of doing if you could somehow finagle it. Well, I guess its not too ideal, cause its happening!

School is done, people are slowly leaving, and the mass of people leaves early tomorrow morning. Tonight is one last night for everyone to spend some time in the city they've called home and has come to very much feel that way. I'm going to a jazz bar with some friends, probably splitting a bottle of wine at the Trevi Fountain afterwards, and maybe hitting up the 24-hour bakery before heading home. Leaving Rome hasnt hit me yet because I'll be back for a few days.

What has hit me is leaving my friends, but it didnt hit me hard till last night. I've made absolutely amazing connections with friends here, and I know those are connections that will last. But I'll miss the people I wont stay connected with, and I'll miss the atmosphere of being able to hang out with anyone at any time even if you've never spoken before. I'll miss the intellectual talks, the talks about God and the human race, the open-mindedness that almost every person here lives by. Sure, it was a little like high school, and it was cliquey, but I'll deal with that for the fabulous community that was formed. And the use of that word isnt cliche; JFRC did become a community, you could have inside jokes about teachers, you always drunkenly stumbled upon a fellow student on the night bus back up the mountain to the campus and recapped your evenings together, everybody together watched the school play/poetry class performance/voice class performance/film class presentations/sculpture class presentations. It may sound corny and unnecessary, but it added alot to this experience, and gave all of us a much different feel for study abroad than most people got.

But anyway - HERE I COME FRANCE AND EASTERN EUROPE. I'm excited to hang out with our couch surfers, meet up with other ones who couldnt host because they have other surfers but invited us to party, travel in places where the Euro isnt destroying my wallet, and travel for the longest period of my life. I'm excited that I get to end it on my own for about 3 days. I need the time to reflect and get closure in my head, and I need those last couple days in Rome to say goodbye.

The mood now though is joyful, its not sad. Tomorrow will be tough to say goodbye to friends, but I'll be excited to head out on my own adventure. And summer is underway, and I can start to daydream about what awaits me at home. Life is good, just like it has been for the last three and a half months, and its a life that I dont want to let go of. While packing up, I came across pictures and cards I brought that family gave me before I came and I had the biggest deja-vu of my life. I read of them telling me to take in this experience of a lifetime and that they were excited to hear the stories when I got home. I looked at the pictures I brought and remembered packing them so I wouldnt feel so isolated. I remembered all those things like it was January. And now I've made those stories to share with others, I'm almost headed back home, this experience that I was told would be life-changing is almost over. And the most amazing thing about it is what it does to you. I feel so comfortable in this new skin I have and the person I've become as a result of study abroad, a change that is impossible to articulate but is totally priceless.

I'll close with a quote that they use here alot at JFRC - "Not all who wander are lost." I wandered, and I found myself, I found this beautiful life. Goodbye friends and my lovely Roman home. I'll see you when I see you, and I can promise no more, so please know that the memories I have and the feelings I've felt are more valuable to me than any picture or souvenir I could take away.

I'll check back in when I return to Rome on May 12. Wishing everyone health, happiness, and safety (wishing myself the same thing), see you in a couple weeks!

Zach