Thank you Barcelona.
I’ve grown to learn that saying goodbye is the hardest thing you can do. Today I said goodbye to an amazing friend and world traveling partner, goodbye to a wonderful city where my many adventures were played out, and goodbye to one of the best chapter’s of my life. But I don’t want to say goodbye, I want to say see you soon. So although I’m leaving and may never have the chance again to return, it’s not goodbye. Barcelona I will see you soon, maybe not as soon as I would like, but I will definitely be seeing you again because you were incredible.
A semester in Barcelona exceeded all my expectations. I traveled and learned that sometimes you will have to sacrifice comfort for a cheaper hostel, but in the end you don’t remember the place you stayed, but the city you had the opportunity to see. I made an incredible friend. A girl who not only acted like my mother by keeping me from starving or getting hit by cars, but also a girl who could read my mind and someone that shares all my traveling experiences. But most of all, I fell in love with a city. I fell in love with Barcelona’s culture and history and chocolate with churros. I made a new home. It was amazing, and I couldn’t have wished for better. There is not a single detail of my journey that I would change because every bit of it was good, and the bits that weren’t were learning lessons. It breaks my heart to leave, but it excites me so much to be reunited with family and old friends…
Bittersweet, extreme bittersweet, bittersweet the size of an elephant, that’s how I feel. I want to leave, and I want to stay, and I’m sitting in the airport and still can’t face the reality that I’ve come to the end of my trip. It is heartbreaking and so very drastic to just pick up and leave. To have packed my bags and know that within 24 hours I’ll be in a different country, different city, with a whole different set of people. It’s mind blowing to say the least. But I’m going home, and that does make it all the much easier. I’m going home to a bed with my fluffy comforter, a home where I no longer have to rely on germ infested public transportation but the gas guzzler that is my car, and a home where my family is excited to greet me. Barcelona you are and will always hold a special place in my heart and adventure, but it’s time to go home. I’m ready to go home.
So as I shut the door for the final time to my dorm room, all I could think was thank you. Thank you Barcelona for being welcoming and enticing. Thank you for providing the perfect scenarios for an unforgettable four months. Thank you to my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews whose support for any decision I make is unending and strong. Thank you to my friends who make me feel part of the equation even if I’m thousands of miles away. Thank you for my sister for reminding me that though I’m traveling and living the coolest life possible, I can still be a brat and I need to learn how to manage my money better. Thank you to my dad whose heart broke as I stepped onto that plane, but let me go anyways. Thank you to my mom who literally accepts every decision I make because she wants to push me as an adult. But most of all, thank you Lord. None of this would be possible without God’s guidance in my life. For he knows the plans he has for me. Plans to help me prosper and not to harm me. Plans that give me a hope and a future. Hasta luego Barcelona!
