Leaving home, to go home.

The end of June I will leave my new, American home to go back to my German home. On one hand, I am really excited to go back to the home where I grew up because I miss my family and friends a lot. But on the other hand, I will miss my new family and friends, I really don’t want to leave them.

Although it is not a goodbye and instead a “see you later,” since I will come back to visit, it still feels weird to leave my friends and my new family. I will be sad to go and have to leave everyone I’ve met.

When I get to Germany I will be so excited to see everything, but then I will see how everything has changed. I will have to get back into a routine, which I think it will be a little bit difficult to do because my family’s routine changed during the year.

I know that I changed during the year and I think that my old friends changed too. I am a little bit scared that we won’t “fit” anymore. I am scared that it is not going to work anymore like it worked before and that the “connection” we had is gone. I’ve been gone for a year, so maybe our interests have changed.

I will also retake my sophomore year again in Germany, so I get in a new class with different people. I don’t really know many people there, it will be different for me not to sit next to my old friends because they will be one grade higher than me.

At the beginning I think it would be weird for me, to only talk German and not English anymore. I got so used to talking in English that I think  I started to think and dream in it too. But I don’t think that will be one of my biggest problems since German is my first language.

All in all my exchange year was an amazing experience that I recommend to everybody. I am so thankful for my family, especially my parents for making my exchange year possible and always supporting me.

I want to say thank you to my host family, they made my exchange year complete and without them, it wouldn’t be possible. They were able to show me this country in their unique way and I earned experiences I will never forget. I appreciate that they offered me a second home and welcomed me into their family.

It was a year I will never forget and I am thankful for everybody who was a part of this year. Thank you for showing me your country, I will miss everyone.