Erin’s Journals

Not only friends for life, but also family for life. This sentence has been in my mind a lot recently as I have reached the last two weeks of my exchange year. Each time I see a friend I wonder whether that could be the last time I will see them in my life. I say my goodbyes slowly and surely and every time remind everyone to stay in contact. It almost gets tedious the tenth time saying it, but if I don’t say it now, you never know what could happen.

Saying goodbye is hard. I think it’s really important to talk about it and also important for new exchange students coming in. As you say goodbye to your friends and watch an entire year flash behind your eyes, you realize that yes you did this before when leaving your home country, but when leaving that life behind, you know you will always be able to go back to it and it will be waiting for you, but now as I look at leaving my life behind in Germany, I know I will never be back at a german high school, living with my host family, hanging out with my friends whenever I want. I will never ever be able to relive this opportunity and that’s what makes it so so hard to leave behind. 

As I look back at these past few months, the biggest moments that stick out to me are the ones where I had to say goodbye to people. These may not be the biggest moments of my exchange like big trips and long journeys.

From saying goodbye to my grandparents after seeing them for two weeks and travelling with them to saying goodbye to my best exchange friends, there are so many more goodbyes in the coming days for me, but these goodbyes are so worth it for the happiness that has come with meeting so many amazing people.

Just because I am leaving my exchange year, that doesn’t mean I am leaving these people behind. I am leaving Germany, the country that has become my second home and always will be, but the people will always be with me. In the photos, the memories, the laughs together, and so much more. Keeping in contact may be hard, but it’ll be so worth it to be able to maybe say hi to these people again someday.

I know as an exchange student we say it so many times, but just to say it one more time to whoever is reading this- thank you to my friends who are always there for me, thank you to my guest family who took me in as a fourth child and sister, and thank you to Rotary for the opportunity to do an exchange year. This year was truly the best year of my life and the memories will stick with me.

Germany you own a piece of my heart and you always will.

Wir sehen uns nochmal (hoffentlich in Deutschland).