No, so I will paint a picture for you.... OK first imagine your life now. What do you do each day, every day. The same old stuff. You get up in the same bed, go to the same Career/School, and then you basically go home. Now normally you see the same people each day, your friends you hang out with. They already know you. All people around you have an idea of who you are. No changing without being a "fake," or really lucky.
Now think if you could start anew, in a new place, with all new people. When everyone around you doesn't care what your old life was like. They just want to know who you are now. You can change and become who you want too.
Then you get used to that person you became. That is the new you! So whats the problem.... Oh yes, you forgot that you have to go back. Eventually, that was my favorite word, because I truly never thought the end would come. I was such an idiot, BUT it did come. Now I know I have to put myself in my old life when I changed so much abroad. I mean I left the USA always wearing dresses, and I didn't even touch them in Italy. I am personally scared to death because I know there are lots of thick-headed Americans I know that will judge me on the fact that I changed. So I just have to not care. I am really good at that too!
Now moving on, the word that we all dread is "RETURN." I have just experienced it about 2 week ago. When I was taking my last plane ride with Intercultural, when I saw the USA (NY skyline) from a different point-of-view. It was different because I knew that we had both changed. New buildings go up each day, the America I knew was gone. I had changed because the Brystal I left there was naive. BTW it doesn't feel like I am back yet.... I am still speaking to much Italian inside my house for me to feel 100% me again. I think my transition has gone easier then other peoples, because I have my Italian Host Sisters with me. Grazie Mille Emi e Mary, Vi Amo!!! <3 They make it all bearable, because I have not felt the heart-sinking feeling that Italy has left me. Or really it is I who left Italy, unwillingly may I add.
Of course I couldn't stay forever in Italy, I just had to enjoy the 10 months I was given. Now since returning to my beloved home country where I was reunited with my friend the hamburger and hot-dog, <3 Oh what love, I have been very content! I got to do many first(s) that I never did before leaving. Like I visited NYC with my girls, while enjoying the fact that my dad always kept his chin on the ground because, "I suddenly speak a foreign language now." *Thanks Dad, I really did not notice I was speaking Italian all year, I thought it was some kind of English dialect or something* Well anyway, we saw the City of Lights, and it was such a change for me! I was not prepared for how tall the buildings were, the ones in Italy were short....and not made of glass! A little side note: We had NYC's pizza and the girls were fascinated by how different it was from the Italian pizza. It is quite different, I guess you have to try it to know! - I think they liked it though! Bonus for the USA, because they thought all the food wood taste really bad! So far they have enjoyed it all! Except Mary doesn't appreciate the Skittles... OMG! She can't taste the rainbow!
We all took a short trip to New Jersey, the state next to Pennsylvania. We went to Sandy Hook to see the lighthouse (Climbed to the top) and mainly to go swimming. The ocean is extremely different compared to the Mediterranean Sea. (I only went swimming near the beaches one time before leaving the US, I am a pool person.) It was a nice little vacation before heading back to my house in PA, it helped create a buffer between my year abroad and the rest of my life in the USA. Which is a seriously long time.
After doing 2 states in 2 days, we headed to PA. My home turf, the land of them country folk, the farmer tans and all..... That's where we have stayed so far, just chilling and enjoying the little things in life. EXCEPT, Emi and Mary are full blown Americans now, seriously Mary had an M&Ms dream, and Emi likes the food....Or can I say in love with the food!
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Now for me, I know I have my life ahead of me. Thanks to AFS Intercultural I have figured out what I want to do. First I have to enroll myself back into Ship, my high school in the US. Then I have to graduate. Easy enough. Now after high school I am hoping to get accepted into The Air force Academy (Impossible to do may I add, but I like a challenge!) OR if I can not join that, I will enlist in the Air force. I am hoping to gain a backbone for when my real dream comes true. Working for the CIA as I want to help the relations abroad and put my second language to use. Of course I do have to go to college in between these two so I have even more experience. I do know what I want to learn also, so in the future you will see me studying up to be a police woman....... It is crazy how one small year abroad helped me find who I really am, one small year to help plan the rest of my life. Thank you AFS <3
SHOOT FOR THE STARS, YOU CAN SEE THEM, SO WHY NOT GRAB THEM?
~ XOXO Brystal ~
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