A shout out

I wouldn’t be a very nice brother if I never once mentioned how Suzanne has been studying in Austria since February, and much like your average displaced North American student, she’s been gambolling across national boundaries with such regularity that I’m starting to wonder if her talk of classes and schoolwork is little more than a cover story. She’s started a blog and has posted plenty of pictures of her exploits on facebook. She’ll be home in less than a month, and it looks like it’s been a slice from the beginning.

And I am envious. Not for all the fun she’s appearing to have, but mostly because she has a best friend to experience it all with. My European adventure was markedly different. Even though I was with a big group of people all from the same college (almost), I was still very much on my own for most of the semester. It was only in early December when I really started to connect with a few people, and shortly thereafter it all ended, propelling me back into the now-bland familiarity of life at home and school. Did I have a choice in how it all turned out? If it was rooted in the nature of my personality, with which I was born, then probably not. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Suzanne comes back after having been there a month longer and having seen more of the continent than I, and still feels like she’s only briefly sampled what living there is like. It happened to me, and I’m sure it happens to everyone who has a positive experience. Would I go back? In a heartbeat. Will I? That depends on how much Real Life stands in the way. Heck, I’m young, single, and employable. I should go while I still can.