Dear Buddies,

I miss you all terribly. It’s been a brief couple of weeks or a long couple of months since I’ve last seen you and I really feel the time apart. I didn’t know how much I would miss you regardless of how often we see each other. There’s something comforting in each of your faces and I miss seeing them.

Being away from home is hard. It doesn’t matter how much fun I am having or how adventurous I feel, at the end of the day it’s still a huge distance between Rome and home. Coming from a homebody who truly pushed herself WAY outside of her comfort zone, being away doesn’t get easier. It’s the comforts of home that I miss the most. The easiness of getting in a car and grabbing Panera to avoid DeNaples food, snuggles in my comfy bed while Apple TV plays in the background, sitting on the couch sandwiched in between my parents and the long dinners with my closest friends is home. But I’ve gotten used to it.

Although we all have very different and separate lives, I truly enjoy the times when we come together and commiserate over the latest shenanigans. Whether it is sitting at Toast, Panera, or DeNaples, I am always happy to be there.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being in Rome. There’s something comforting about being here now too that I would miss just as much if I were home. But there is always a sense of the grass is greener regardless of how you feel about the place you are in.

In three short months, I’ll be home. For good this time I promise. And then we can pick right back up where we left off. Though it might be an adjustment at first, it will be even more extraordinary than before.

So for now, just know I miss you a lot. Thank you for sticking by me and still being my friend.

I love you guys,

Liz