The Gabtrotter

After being back in the United States for a solid 10 days, I’ve come to the conclusion that that chapter of my life went by too quickly. I guess because it is this faraway place, it has the ability to seem less real than other chapters. Whereas, with things I miss or think about around here, I am reminded of them much easier since I am surrounded by them or pass by them regularly.

The night of our goodbye party, I mentioned in conversation that it is a sad realization that “this is the closest we will all ever be again.” My friends and I from this trip will probably never be in such close proximity at the same time, and as close again emotionally. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it is unlikely and that is a sad realization. For, there are not many times in life where you grow close with people and know for a fact that this will be as close as you will ever be, I guess when certain friends are moving or you are leaving you always assume that you’ll have the chance to be close again because you’ve had them part of your life for so long. With study abroad it is a bit different than that.

I guess that is what makes studying abroad such a highly regarded experience: for a short while you experience what it is like to live and create a world in another country, with different friends, different foods and life-altering experiences. For the most part, all of these experiences and ways of life are temporary-, which in a sense romanticizes the whole thing. Already, I have a tendency with nostalgia only remembering the good and forgetting the bad—oh sweet memory. As I think about the times from Australia, I remember them with fondness and appreciation more and more.

My friends and I at our goodbye party

Before I left, people would tell me, “Oh you’re going to love it. You’re going to have the time of your life there!” When people would tell me that, I never really believed it. I just didn’t understand how one short trip, to a place where I knew no one and had no idea what to expect could really be some of the best months of my life. Now, that I am actually living it, I totally understand what they had meant.

Before I left, I saw the movie Up in the Air and although I didn’t really like the movie, George Clooney’s character said: “If you think about it, your favorite memories, the most important moments in your life… were you alone? Life’s better with company.” The best moments are spent with other people; at least they have been for me. They may not be people you’ve been friends with your whole life, or people you’ll always be friends with, but all that matters is that you are there, together, fully loving and living in the moment.

Before I left, I didn’t know whom I was going to meet and I didn’t exactly know where life was going to take me. While I am here, I’ve been fortunate to have made some friends that have made these memories exceed just a good time and people to kill time with.

This weekend we went to Byron Bay and saw Australia’s most easterly point. There is something about being someplace that is the most of anything. Aren’t some of the best things when you are the most of that situation? Where you are the most happy, the most out there, living. We were standing on the edge of Australia, the edge of the world… or the world we live in right now. I’m the type of person, that as long as I am with some friends, it doesn’t matter where we are: we could be stuck on a plane for 13 hours, or at a club with the worst music in the world, I’ll still have a good time because I know that when the time is over it wasn’t about the music that was playing, the places we were or the talks we had at the time… it’s about being where you are and just fully experiencing it. I guess this time we are lucky, not only are we living in the moments as they happen, but we happen to be living these moments in the middle of the summer of a beautiful country. I might sound a little extreme, but I’m just trying to make the most of this… or be the most of whatever it is I am: happy.

Cheers to my friends here! Enjoy some of our best pictures:

Just stopping in here to say that life is good.. Life is grand… I love being tired because I’ve been having fun all day and not because of other things. I’m going to play tennis tomorrow and I’m excited about that. Life is good… Life is grand.