Toledo, Spain

I have been living in Spain for about two weeks. The days are easy when they are filled with classes. The hard days are when you’re alone in your room with your thoughts. Those moments are when the homesickness sets in, and you realize that the Atlantic Ocean separates you from what you call home. The past few days, I have missed familiar faces. I miss running into friends as I transition from class to class, taking courses with people I have spent the last two years with, and my sweet roommates and boyfriend, who have made my college experience so lovely. These faces are the ones I have been craving to connect with, hug, and hear about even the most mundane of moments in their everyday lives.

This weekend, as all three of my roommates left on trips of their own, I have been left with the opportunity to once again sit alone in my thoughts, reminiscing on the faces that make a city home. However, today, I got the chance to spend what could be quiet and somber moments with new faces, new people, with stories that don’t differ as much from mine as one may expect. I connected with people from my time zone on the other side of the world. Somehow, these people shattered the quiet and somber moments and replaced them with laughter and adventure. Somehow, these people made me feel so heard and understood. Somehow, these people are now the familiar faces that make up my classes and make this experience feel a bit more like home.