Not Your Average Thanksgiving

Today was Thanksgiving. It wasn’t your typical turkey-eating, football-watching, cozy up in a sweater and jeans kind of Thanksgiving we were all used to. In my 20 years of life I have never missed a Thanksgiving with my family. That holds true for this year as well. Although they may not be my real family, they have come to stand in for and act as my family. My study abroad group of friends are the most wonderful people I could have ever imagined meeting. We have truly become a family. As we shared our thanksgiving dinner together at a local restaurant eating chicken, salmon, or veal we all reminisced about family traditions of thanksgiving and our memories we have shared here. I feel like I just got to Australia yesterday and yet I’m leaving in just about three weeks. As Maz’s Dad gave us an inspirational speech this evening it made realize what a wonderful and truly amazing experience this has been. If you would have asked me in high school if I ever thought I could study abroad in Australia, literally on the other side of the world, I would have laughed and said “No way!”. But now, I look back at my time here and I can’t imagine life without this experience and all the incredible people I have met. Maz’s Dad’s speech was all about our journey in life and how this is only the beginning. We have traveled so far away from our families and been through so many different experiences and we are only 20 years old. We sill have the rest of our lives to live and go on more outstanding journeys. Listening to his speech made me teary eyed to think that this time has to come to and end, but it makes me hopeful because I do know, this IS only the beginning. There are so many more journeys I will go on in life. This chapter in my life is soon ending but I can’t wait to see where the new one will take me.

This quote I found is pretty self-explanatory and sums up the past 3 and a half months of my life. “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard