A few weeks out...

Wow, typing this on a laptop instead of with my thumbs is going to be so much easier (and probably a lot more grammatically correct)!! 

I've been home for 24 days now and I think of my trip literally every single day and dream about it and am dying to go back. I guess I didn't get all of the adventure out of me...sorry dad. 

I think if I could tell myself one thing from beforehand it would probably be to embrace the alone time, you don't really get that when you're back home and have 17 family members coming in for a week for your sisters graduation party (my graduation is super irrelevant here). I'm just amazed by how much I miss doing things by myself, I really didn't think I would miss just going somewhere and just doing something just because I could. Also the suburbs of Buffalo doesn't really provide a great environment for this...but I hope I can pick this up in my soon to be new home of Atlanta (13 days OMG!!) and probably tell myself to calm down...like a lot! Seriously, don't be such a spaz...it works out alright. Hindsight 20/20. 

I find myself reading articles about the EU and thinking--oh how about I add this dimension to my presentation or look in to how this factor influences so and so and then I'm thinking, hey, Amanda, calm down...try to put together what you have already and then you can go crazy. I went to Europe to try to get an understanding of unity and how this feels but I came back really wondering how the hell the EU is staying together with so much passion on both sides, some apathy, a crazy amount of beautiful cultures and of course a few bailouts. But I love that it is more or less unknowable because then it would be the social sciences...sorry Descartes you aren't nailing this one down that easily. 

I think the Brueggeman Fellowship has changed how I feel gratitude. Never in my life have I felt so profoundly glad and thankful that this was the way I got to end my undergraduate experience. But it is more than just my experience too. The fact that I learned about the other fellows and their projects is really special and I'm not just saying that to say it. Honestly, I'll never look at landscape paintings again because of Emily, or landscapes in general because of what Tyler and Tess showed us it's like I get to see life in a better light because of them (all of them even though I only listed three). So thank you to you all for everything you have shared and taught me this past year...I know there is more to come! <--you can put that on a Brueggeman promotional flyer, okay? 

So now that I got to open my very sappy heart out to you fair reader it's time for me to start packing for my next big adventure while carrying some of the greatest memories and lessons of my life.