Leaving

I'm sorry to tell anyone who actually reads this that I will be returning to America earlier than planned. It's a long, complicated story, but I have decided to go home and will be flying out within a matter of days.

The hardest part of this is walking away from my friends. A lot of them think I should be happy to be going home, but the thing they don't understand how hard it actually is. I don't know if I'll ever see any of them again. That's the hard part. Walking away from a second home. A second life. A second family made of some really great friends and some of the best people I have ever met. This past week has been harder than I could've ever imagined. Telling all my friends that suddenly I was flying home just broke my heart. I can already feel the pain of saying goodbye to them in person, of boarding that flight, of sitting on that plane for hours knowing that I might never again see any of the amazing people I'm flying away from, and of those first few days back when it all starts to set in that I'm no longer with some great friends. I keep asking myself why it hurts so much to say goodbye to people who were complete strangers to me less than a year ago. Now that I know these people, I just can't picture my life without them in it. It's hard to think about going to school and walking through the halls without them being there.

I do not regret a single moment of my time spent in Germany. I have grown so much in such a little time. I have experienced another culture in a way that most people never get the chance to. I became integrated with another culture. My German is definitely not perfect, but it improved so much throughout my time here and so much more that it ever could've in a year in a German class in America.

To any of my German friends: Ich wollte nur sagen...danke. Ihr habt dieses Jahr das beste Jahr meines Lebens gemacht. Ich kann euch NIE genug für alles danken. Ich wünschte, ich konnte die nächsten 10 Wochen bei euch bleiben, aber leider kann ich nicht. Deutschland ist jetzt meine zweite Heimat und ihr seid meine zweite Familie. Wörter können nicht beschreiben, wie viel ich euch vermissen werde :( Ich hab euch so viel lieb. ♥ Vergesst das nie.

P.S. If anyone who goes to Tallwood High School happens to be creeping on my blog and reads this, DO NOT TELL LIZ OR KATE!!!! I'm planning on surprising them. In fact, don't tell anyone. The more people I can surprise, the more fun it'll be. Thanks :)