Study Abroad Return by Meredith Duncan

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I imagined that coming home from my study abroad would be sad, for sure. I knew that I would hate packing, hate saying goodbye, and that I would leave a piece of myself there. What I did not know is that I would be leaving a month and a half early due to a pandemic. That was the game changer.

I was having a perfectly normal Thursday headed to Madrid to catch a flight to Paris for the weekend. My professor just happened to be on the same bus as me and about halfway to Madrid she woke me up and told us that we had to return to Trujillo as soon as we got to Madrid, pack our suitcases, and get on a flight back to the United States. It took less than 48 hours for my trip, in my eyes at that time, to be ruined.

The next 48 hours were a blur to say the least. I returned to my family in Trujillo, gave them the news through tear filled eyes and began to pack my suitcase. In Spain we had a running joke that I never cried… not anymore! During the whole time I continued to think it wasn’t real.  After all, it was just a virus anyway; I didn’t understand why it had to ruin my trip.

It wasn’t until we arrived in Madrid that I realized the severity of the situation. A city that used to be packed full of people now seemed like a ghost town. I was so thankful then for the difficult decisions that The College had to make. When we arrived back in America, the CDC was screening everyone on the plane before they could disembark. I had a few symptoms of the virus so I was required to stay for further testing, which made my experience a little more frightening.

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Of course, I had to quarantine for 14 days after arriving home which gave me a lot of time to think. I hate that my trip was cut short and that the world appears to have stopped turning for a while, but there has to be a bigger lesson here. A lesson in adversity, patience, and thankfulness. My study abroad taught me a lot and this unique experience only taught me more. It makes me cherish the family and friends I had in Spain, it makes me thankful for everything I still have, and it drives me to do more with the time I have while I have it. What appeared, and sometimes still appears to be, the worst thing that has happened to many of us, provides us an opportunity to grow as individuals and as a community.

I am thankful for all of the time, support, and education I received and am still receiving from my study abroad trip. The experience doesn’t stop just because you return home, no matter when you return.

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