Here's to Now

My facebook newsfeed doesn't let me forget that school is starting at Bowdoin - the Outing Club posted pictures of pre-orientation preparations, Bowdoin College posted photos of freshmen moving in, and many of my friends are updating their locations and posting statuses about heading back to school.

It makes me really wish I could be there for the start of school. Partially that's because I'm feeling nostalgia for freshman year, when everybody is nervous and thrilled at the same time. The best part about it is that you are so unabashedly open - to making friends (with everyone), going on spontaneous adventures, and turning a new space into your home.

Definitely some nostalgia, but I'm also afraid of missing out on everything amazing that's happening. I wish I could lead a Pre-O, get to know the freshmen, and have the joy of seeing friends after a long summer break. I could fill my journal with things that I'll miss not being able to do this fall at Bowdoin.

Then I realized that I'm already busy filling my journal - with things that are making me happy to be here. And I've found that one of my favorite things about studying abroad so far is the openness that it forces upon me, just like freshman year. I'm in the same nervous/excited/making-friends mode as I was freshman year (the big difference is that because it's second semester here, nobody else is, haha. except perhaps the other exchange students, of which there are fewer than 10). And I love it here! As sad as I am that I'm not Bowdoin-bound this semester, I know that when I return to Maine next semester, I'll feel the same way about not being settled in La Serena. (does that sentence make sense? it does to me, at least.)

As a freshman, every upperclassman you ask for advice from tells you, "Enjoy it! It passes by so quickly that it's over before you know it." Not surprisingly, my friends who have studied abroad say the exact same thing about spending a semester in another country. That's the sort of counsel that isn't just applied to a semester of school, though - it's sage life advice that everybody can learn from.

And so, I wish my friends at Bowdoin a wonderful semester. And to my other friends and family reading this, whatever you may be doing, I hope you enjoy it!

Here's to now :).

[incidentally, this is a great song that I first heard during pre-o week last year]