My friends tell me that I have one personality trait: Tokyo.

They aren't wrong by any means. If you mention the word anywhere near my vicinity, I'll engage in a lengthy conversation where I ramble on and on about my second home for at least an hour. I can't help it.

After graduating from high school, I decided to take a gap-year in Japan. I remember feeling anxious before I went. How would I learn the language? Would I make friends? How do I know where the bathrooms are? Surely I would survive… right?

I was hopeful that I would honor the promise I made to myself when I decided to go abroad. I told myself that this year would be the best of my life. It didn't disappoint.

Living abroad was like a fever dream. Every day was an episode in my wildest fantasies—working for local fashion magazines, sipping on lattes with my foreign friends I never knew I thought I needed, and exploring my new-found paradise.

Last week, I was flipping through the pages of my planner and realized the date was April 1st. For most people, this day is just an excuse to send prank chain-messages to their friends. To me, it's a year to the day I moved back to the United States and cried on a plane for 16 hours straight.

Before moving abroad, I was too scared to be me. Growing up in Miami where image is everything, I was terrified to be meticulously picked apart for everything I did. That preconditioned judgment in my nature completely changed the minute I realized no one cared as much as I did.

Stepping into a world where no one knew my name was refreshing. I didn't have to play the role of someone who had everything in their life together because, in reality, none of us do.

I learned how to embrace my weirdness. I could step out in a furry pink sweatsuit and no one would bat an eye. I didn't hide my laugh—an embarrassing pig-like snort. I was bold. I experimented. I truly, for once in my life, lived.

Looking back, I don't remember the girl I used to be prior to my stint in Japan. The person I've become since then is an entirely different beast. She's fearless. She's bold. She's her own best friend.

Every day I'm grateful for the people I met, the experiences I had, and the memories that will stay in my heart forever. All these together made me, me.

So here is a thank you to the city that gave the greatest gift of a lifetime: finding myself.