When it comes to studying abroad, everyone tells you what to expect while you’re there. They tell you you’re going to have so much fun, but also that you’re going to miss home sometimes. They tell you that your weekends will be full of traveling and partying, and that you’re never going to want to come home. And then they tell you that when you finally are home, nothing will be the same and you’ll miss it so much. These are all true but there are a few things that they left out about what happens when you come home from traveling abroad.

You come home and you have your reunions with your family, your friends, and just about any and everyone who knew you were away. They ask how it was, you tell them it was absolutely amazing. Coming home and talking about your adventure is so exciting but then it just stops. After the first time no one wants to hear anymore about the jokes you had with your friends there or, ‘that one time you got lost in Amsterdam’. And it’s not like you necessarily want to talk about it either. You know they just don't get it, so you spend an obscene amount of time talking to, and missing the people who do get it. Soon it starts to see as though your time abroad is way in the past and that it has little to no significance in your normal, everyday life.

You become incredibly jealous of any and everyone who is about to start their study abroad adventures. Even if they’re traveling to a city you didn't live in or even visit, their instagrams and snapchats of european adventures and exotic countries are just too much to handle at times. And there’s a constant longing to be back there or have a feel for being back there. You find yourself listening to songs that remind you of your time there, or movies and shows that take place in that country just to give yourself this false feel of being back. You feel like the people there are taking advantage of their time, you feel like they don't know how lucky they are.

You feel so lost in this place that has been your home up until you're plane took off, and since it touched back down a few months later. Even though you were only away for a few months, some customs and traditions snuck their way into your routine and you cant seem to shake them. Do you know how many times I finish eating out and stand up to leave forgetting that here we pay for our food after we eat it rather than before? You never thought it would be hard to adjust back to the life you’ve been living for 20 years. But it is.

Its great to come home, to see family and friends, to see your house and your school. But the thing is it feels like you never even left. But you did leave, in a big way. You traveled thousands of miles away, you experienced different cultures, met different people and learned so many valuable things. So little has changed at home while so much has changed for you. And thats the hardest part. You will no longer look at your small, hometown the same after you’ve experienced life elsewhere. Even though you may have been gone for as little time as four months, it has had such a large impact on who you are. You are not the same person you were when you left. And in the strangest way, this is the most comforting change there can be.