I can think of a million things I learned while studying abroad. Okay, maybe not quite a million, but you get the idea.

For a lot of students, their study abroad experience ends up being their greatest semester at college. I can safely say I completely agree and I'm not sure anything could top it.

But while the country-hopping and cheap flights have to come to an end, the adventure doesn't.

I can't say I was nervous at all about going to another country on my own for five months. I really wasn't at all. I never had the night-before jitters or worried about everything that could go wrong. I was completely and wholeheartedly excited for the experience that was about to start.

And then five months flew by and I was packing up to come back home. Back to reality. Back from my five month vacation. And throughout that packing, I started thinking so much about how much I had changed over those few short months.

As reality started to set in that I'd be coming home, my initial gut feeling was fear.

What if everything I've learned about myself is thrown away once I'm back home?

What if all the happiness I've found is lost when I'm taken away from here?

Is life about to go from fun and exciting to boring and uneventful?

But it was with these thoughts that I discovered even more about myself. Maybe even more than I'd learned throughout the semester.

I had gotten so wrapped up in living in this new world that it felt like an entirely different reality. It felt like a dream and, if I'm being honest, it was.

It was a dream I never wanted to wake up from, but one I knew would have to end.

But rather than fear how I would change once again when I came home, I quickly learned how much I needed to embrace that change.

See, just because I found complete and pure happiness while abroad didn't mean I had to leave it in another country. The point of the experience is to take everything you learn about yourself and the world around you, and bring it back with you.

There wouldn't be much of a point in going away for a semester and leaving all of your new knowledge in a foreign country.

So I brought it back with me.

I brought back the adventurous personality and the desire to explore.

I brought back the need to step out of my comfort zone.

Everything you learn about yourself during an experience like study abroad, it has to come back with you. There has to be acknowledgement that this five month vacation will come to an end. But when it does, be prepared to bring all of this self-discovery back with you.

As the semester comes to an end, if you tell yourself you're going to go home and be unhappy, that's exactly what you'll be.

But if you look back at the time you had and realize how much you've grown, you won't leave anything behind when you come home.