Nostalgia Setting In

How do you say goodbye to people you've really only just started saying hello to? And worse, how do you say goodbye fully knowing that the likelihood of you actually seeing them again is practically non existent? These are my thoughts this weekend as one by one, my friends from Whitley are leaving for home. I've made friends in short periods of time and been sad to lose them, for example when I went to Europe junior year, but Australians are different- they're irreplaceable. Yes, I am looking forward to going home and seeing Hannah, Alicia, Joey, Mike, Rachel, Kevin, etc, again, but I also knew from the beginning that I would see them again when I left. I have had such a good experience in Australia, and a lot of it has been because of how wonderful these people have been to me. Considering I was brought into "the family" after about a week of being at Whitley, my home away from home became cemented fairly quickly. What's more lamentable, however, are the people I've become really good friends with in the last two months or so, and I wish I just had more time for all of us, without exams and extraneous stresses, to just do things and enjoy each other's company.

I am currently avoiding packing up my room, even though I really need to because it makes it real. It means I really am going home, that I really am leaving this country that has showed me so much about myself and the person I want to be. I know I have another month of travel yet to go, and that there will be many more adventures and many more stories, but the fact that I am going to have to pack my suitcases means that from now on, there will be no set, stable place to call home. I'm leaving for good now. I will never again be a student at Melbourne University, never again have class with Conall Cash's dad, never again randomly crash barbecues on the lawn, never again arbitrarily borrow books from the greatest library on earth, never again dress up for a CRD, never again have a Cafe, never again go for a Puggs Thursday. I feel like I've taken so much for granted, that I should have done more, seen more, gone out more. But then again, one has to sleep too.

I don't know what I'm going to do in a few weeks when Antonio will leave me in Cairns for New Zealand. Seriously, I've made so many good friends I just can't stomach the idea of leaving them as solely part of my experience in Australia. I want to take them with me, I want to have crazy nights in Philly. I know for some of them this is a reality- Sneha and I are already plotting things. But when again will I be able to hang out with Germans, Swedes, Italians, Australians, Irish, English all with the common experience of studying in Australia? Never. It's like graduating from high school, except I like the people.

I don't think I can write anymore right now because I'm starting to cry, and it's embarrassing crying in the computer lab. I'll write more later.