By Sara Wiseman
The merciless sun is beating down on your back and sweat gathers at the brow as you make the final push to defeat your finals. Purging all of the trivial information you’ve been fed in summer classes will be a sweet relief. But then what? Your summer abroad session is through.
The time has come. Time to raise a glass in celebratory fashion, to embrace new friends that may turn into old memories, to remember the laughs that lasted too long for no reason at all and to take a good look around at a legendary city that gained familiarity. The time has come to go home.
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You’ll be greeted by hoards of people asking similar questions. And in true jukebox fashion, the appropriate disc will fall and the needle will drag across the desired track.
It’s nice to have a collection of pictures appropriate to share with your family tree and to present for your study abroad office. But a key to your return to the United States is documenting your experience as you remember it. Not as the experience that’s easily marketed to parents or jobs.
Print off the inappropriate pictures, write down the embarrassing stories and keep in contact with the friends you’ve made abroad. Pay homage. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself a jukebox tiredly playing the greatest hits and forgetting the lyrics to the B-side tracks.
