My last message from Paris... This is a bittersweet moment. I always thought that after spending a semester abroad, I would turn into this completely self-realized person who knew what she wanted to do with her life and who felt up to any challenge. Far from it, I have realized that I know nothing, and I only have a million questions left to ask myself about my life and what I am going to do after college. The important thing is that I want France to be part of my story.
Even if I only get to be here for small stints in the future, I realize now that my life is permanently entwined with Paris. I just want to make it count when I go home. There's nothing like this odd city, and at times, it's easy to write it off as too much of a world-wide myth center. It's like people just want to come here for the sites and the monuments, for the Mona Lisa and the Eiffel Tower. Paris, as I have lived it, is about so much more than those things.
Paris for me will always hold a special place in my heart because of the people who are here. Granted, not all of them are special. You meet some odd characters on the metro, and I am glad to see those adventures far behind me. But you also meet so many people with different walks of life. Part of what makes the French culture so special is how the world is something to study. I never want to forget the desire I have to explore the world like one great canvas upon which each culture has painted its heritage to be shared.
For me, I am already missing my corner of Paris, though I know that I'm always going to carry it with me.
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