An Important Message - From: Me, To: All

I don't really know how to start this, but this is something that I really need to be say.

I can't even begin to tell you all how much I've changed over these past 8 months. I don't know how to explain my experiences or describe the details of my whole year abroad. This exchange changed me in ways I could have never foreseen before embarking on this journey.

And I just want to let everyone know, don't expect me to be exactly the same as I was before I left. When you see me, yes - I will look different, I will seem different, I will be different.

I know that when I return home, many people will expect me to pick up where I left off before I left home - to carry on "as normal" with my life as it was before I dove headfirst into dark waters that I didn't know would end up changing me as much as it did. To be completely honest, I cannot remember what "normal" was for me back at home. I don't remember the way I use to talk to my friends or what jokes I would or wouldn't tell with each one. I don't remember what I use to do with my days when there was nothing to do. I don't remember the certain little things that I use to do - maybe through habit - during my daily life.

So please, don't expect me to just pick up where I left off, as if I just disappeared into a black hole - too far away to even exist - while life for everyone else continued on. And please don't expect me to be the same person that I was before this whole experience. Because I promise you, although I am still me, I have changed more than I know how to express to you. And I will probably look, sound, act, and just seem different. Something might seem off, but just give me time.

Adjusting to life back at home will be extremely difficult for me. Believe it or not, I had [have] a whole other life out here in Slovakia, the life that in currently only 8 short months became the "norm" of my every day life. And by coming back home, I will have abandoned that normality and be thrust back into the ways of a life that I haven't been living for the past year. Reverse culture shock is a very real thing - just thinking about returning home makes me nervous.

By making this post, I just want to let you all know that it may be strange when I arrive back home, but I just need time to adjust and get into a comfortable flow of things. I hope you all will understand and still look forward to my return.

-E.