Last week, I had to say goodbye to some of my best friends. It started off with me receiving a call on Tuesday to say that my dog had passed away. After 17 weeks without seeing him, I was so looking forward to being reunited with him when I would return to the UK for Christmas in the following week. You can therefore imagine my mix of emotions and my heartbreak to hear this news. Thanks, Paddy, for all of the memories you gave us and for all of the stupid things you did that would keep us entertained for so long.
At the end of the same week, me and three friends left the Kent campus to spend two nights in Cleveland before saying goodbye for Christmas. We had a really fun last day together, just doing some gentle shopping, which was a lovely way to finish and mark the end of our first semester. Knowing I would be leaving and needing to say goodbye to Mat and Victoria at the airport, I had been preparing myself for the awfully sad and emotional Sunday morning that was looming. It obviously turned out to be even worse than I had expected, which I didn't think was possible. I have had the most incredible time in Ohio and so much of that is thanks to those two girls. Moving to another continent for a year was very scary and intimidating, but was made so much easier when I met two people who were in the same situation as me. Our mutual support for one another stopped us from being too homesick to do anything fun, and instead encouraged us to say yes to every stupidly-last-minute holiday idea and every late night movie night (apologies for the lab reports I had to simultaneously write, though.)
Girls, I'll see you both soon for many more SMALL adventures and EXPERIENCES with the BOTH OF THREE OF US. In the meantime, I'll miss saying "NO THANKYOU" and "HE WASHED MY SINK IN THE WIND". I'm hoping there'll be no more ITALIAN SALAD incidents and that you'll always fit your BAAs.
