As many do at the period new years eve I decided to stay still for a minute and reflect on the previous semester cause there were some thoughts that needed to be shared. First of all, this semester thought me to be prepared for everything. I remember the training everyone receives before their Erasmus mobility. The was a woman who told us a really bad experience of her. Long story short, she got to live in a shady neighborhood in the Netherlands and witnessed criminal activities such as gun use. Irrationally, my mind went "nah, that couldn't be me" since I went through so much, I didn't think anything can top that. Well, turns out it can. It can happen to anyone, and it happens to most whether it's them leaving their comfort zone, or staying right there in the safety of their own borders. One thing I have learnt in a hard way that you need to be cautious. One who gets themselves in dangerous situations is only haunting their bad luck. You need to have those trustworthy friends, and you need to surround yourself with them all times because it can save a night, a piece of sanity or even a life. This is the first thing you need to do when you arrive on Erasmus. Find friends. And once you find them, you'll want to keep them by your side for forever because you realize, they're very special people. Keep each other safe. Another thing that has been bugging my mind, is that I contacted a person who used to be a close friend for quite a period of time and it turned out I have missed something: that saying goodbye before my travels wasn't on a good term. Now this might seem tragic but it's really not what's bothering me. Friends come and go, we outgrow each other, not in a competition kind of way but in a way that we both feel that we have to go different paths now. I have no harsh feeling towards this person, even if it felt like a two-faced betrayal at first. One thing that stuck with me from that conversation, is that she told me I change too much and too many times, she doesn't know if she ever knew me. I've been thinking of this a lot, reflecting it on every Erasmus journey and I came to the conclusion that probably there is nothing wrong with changing because change is a sign of growth after all, even if it's a fluctuation. If a newborn baby doesn't change, he or she will never experience the beauty of poetry since that requires words, and without change and growth a newborn won't learn the words. These words can symbolize the words of a different language or a different life you wouldn't know if you wouldn't make the decisions and choices that it is worth seeing them. I don't know if the person I'm referring to will read these lines but if she does, there's one thing I couldn't tell you. Don't go on an Erasmus if you don't expect to change, or you are afraid of it. Nobody comes back the same way they left because that wouldn't be a road worth taking, would it?
It is a wonderful journey nonetheless, but don't be as naive as me to say bad things won't happen. They might will, or you might be a really lucky person and won't. The lesson here is that it's unrealistic to expect that everything is going to go well, but it is a very realistic approach that you choose to look at it from an angle that let's the good events outshine anything bad.
“Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.”
― L.M. Montgomery