So, if I’m counting correctly:

6 – days of classes to attend (well, technically seven if you include my recital, but…that doesn’t work in the title of this post, so I won’t)

4 – major essays to write (and too many words to count)

and finally…

2 – weeks exactly until I will be back in the United States!

I cannot believe how fast this has all gone. I’m pretty sure that when I get home, after that first night of rest, I’ll wake up and think that this whole experience was a long, intense dream. The combination of living in a constant state of confusion, motion, and change has created a sense of the unreal. It’s all too fantastical for me to realize that I’ve been living in a different country for three months.

I think it will hit me randomly one day back home. I’ll be somewhere, a Panera or Starbucks, maybe talking with an old friend over the holiday break, and I’ll be able to say, “When I lived in Liverpool…” I mean, how incredible is that? I’ve talked to people who have lived abroad, and I’ve always thought that they were somehow set apart, so much more worldly and cultured because they can say, “I’ve been there. I’ve done that.” Now I’ll be one of those people. What.

It’s also hit me how little time I have left, and how fast these next two weeks will go. A person can only see so much in three months. There are still places in the city that I haven’t explored. Major sites I haven’t seen. Streets I haven’t wandered and cafes I haven’t sat in. But I’m not disheartened by this. If anything, it compels me to come back, to explore the city again on my own terms sometime in the near future. And, next time, I’ll know what I want to do and see and experience, and how. I can return to Liverpool not as a tourist, but as an old friend. And catching up with her will be all the more grand.

Home, America, calls to me. I can feel it in my stomach; unsatisfied cravings and stops to Subway. My mind is wandering from classrooms here to my campus back in the Midwest. And my heart, my soul; it yearns for those who are thousands of miles away but feel closer to than ever.

I’ve been through my fair share of ups and downs since arriving in Liverpool that sunny September day, but I think I’ve finally found what I’ve been searching for this whole time: contentment. I’ve come to cherish the highs and accept the lows. I do not regret anything that I did or did not do. I’m happy with where I have arrived in this journey, and I look forward to what lies ahead.

Cheers. x

 

Here are a few pictures of Liverpool just for fun.