It has officially been a little over a month since I arrived back in the United States, and I do miss my time in Italy. Arriving back in the US I was expecting to deal with the reverse culture shock and the adjustment to going back to work and not being able to walk everywhere and thankfully I adjusted back quickly. However, now that I have been back for a while I have had time to reflect on my time spent in Italy and I have come to appreciate the memories I have made as well as some of the important lessons I learned along the way.
One of the best lessons I learned is to enjoy the experiences you can have. This was something I was told before and multiple times through my study abroad experience however the message didn’t really make sense to me until I arrived back. After being back for a few days all my friends and family asked me a ton of questions about my time in Europe. This got slightly annoying for me at first but eventually, I realized that most of the people asking the questions about my trip were just curious. My family was curious about how I enjoyed each place I went to and what my favorite places were, while my friends were curious about how different the culture was in Europe compared to America. After realizing this I am super happy I enjoyed my time in Europe as I don’t know when I will be able to go back. I had to remind myself that some of my friends and family will never be able to have the experiences I have had and by changing my perspective I have grown to appreciate my time traveling more than I originally thought I would.
Another lesson I learned was to be grateful for the people I met while abroad. I didn’t think much about making a lot of friends when I went over for my semester at CIMBA. However, coming back to the US, I realized just how important the friendships I made were. It has been so important for me to be able to talk to someone about how weird or difficult it is to adjust back to normal life. We all shared lots of stories and trips with each other along the way and being able to look back and laugh at the memories we made has been one of the things I will never be able to take for granted. Having friends to stay connected with after my time with CIMBA has been so rewarding and I am glad I made the friendships I did.
As my time abroad is officially over, for now, I am thankful for the experience the CIMBA program allowed me to have. I strongly recommend to anyone who wants to get out there and travel to try your best to travel as you will grow so much as a person. I know I grew a lot while in Italy, and I am thankful for all the lessons, fun times, and friends I made! If I could do it all over again I certainly would!