"There is never any end to Paris, and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease it could be reached. Paris was worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it."

I once heard a saying that life is like a toilet paper roll – the closer you get to the end of something, the faster it goes. That sure has been the case with my study abroad experience. I can’t begin to express how mind-blowing it is that I am leaving here tomorrow. I really feel like I just got here.

This semester has been the most challenging, most frustrating, most fun, and most rewarding experience of my life. I feel like I have learned so much about myself, the French, and human beings in general and yet I feel like I know nothing at all. If you’ll indulge me, I want to share some things I learned while I was here:

• Any dish whose main ingredient is the blood of an animal is just a bad idea. Period.
• Men are eternally confusing, regardless of the continent they hail from.
• Consistently looking like a slob not only shows that you do not have respect for yourself, it shows that you do not respect the people around you. My French civilization professor explained it to me this way – when the French see an American walking into Notre Dame dressed in a 49ers football jersey with the sleeves cut off, a backward baseball cap, and sweatpants, they take it personally. When you don’t make the effort to at least look somewhat put together, it tells the people around you that they are not worth the time it takes to put on a clean shirt. Some people may see this as snobbishness on French people’s part, but I for one respect that theory very much. (That’s not to say we’re not entitled to a grubby sweatpants-wearing day every now and again. Just don’t go to any cathedrals.)
• Nothing is quite like the high you get when you are able to communicate clearly and effectively with someone in a foreign tongue.
• But muffins, with the right ingredients, can get you pretty high, too.
• Our way is not always the best way. Different does not mean dumb.
• If you pretend to like something that you secretly loathe, chances are you’ll get served it again. (And I’m not just talking about food.)
• Sometimes knowing where you come from is just as important as knowing where you’re going. The lady I live with can trace her roots back hundreds and hundreds of years. It seems like everyone here has this really rich knowledge of their ancestry, and I really feel like that is something we’re missing in the United States. I never realized what a big part of whom a person is can be related to where they come from, and I’d very much like to discover more about my ancestry when I get back.
• There isn’t going to be a point where everything becomes clear. I have to admit, I came to Paris thinking I was going to be Sabrina. I was going to come back from France a new person – knowing exactly who I was, what I wanted to do with my life, what my next steps would be. But, I think I realized that no one (except maybe the very lucky or the mildly insane) has a moment where the right path becomes evident and they figure everything in their life out. I’m pretty sure being an adult is just taking things as they come at you and accepting the consequences (good or bad) of your decisions, taking solace in the fact that, like you, everyone else is flying by the seat of their pants.
• There is no better way to test how competent you are than public transportation in a foreign country.
• Sometimes the things you don’t look forward to are the ones you enjoy the most.
• The internet should NEVER be taken for granted. (If you have difficulty wrapping your head around this, think about having to make a 30 minute commute or pay $6 every time you want to check your e-mail.) Also, the same goes for Heinz ketchup, free bathrooms, ice, peanut butter, country music, and Mexican food.
• I’ve learned that a group of people who have very little in common can be thrown together for a semester and come out of it having made genuine friendships and truly having had a blast.
• You only live once, so shut up, buy an overpriced drink, and miss the last Metro home.
• Traveling is one of the best things you can do during your lifetime, but you can only go so long before you just want to curl up on your couch and watch TV with the people you love.

I guess what I should conclude with is something my good friend Susanna (who studied in Beijing last year and who I tend to get very philosophical with when we drink red wine together) told me and which has always stuck with me. She said that no matter where we (human beings) are from in the world, at our core we’re exactly the same. I think we have a tendency to think of the rest of the world as fundamentally different from us, and they are in some ways, but at the end of the day, we all go home and worry about the same things – our work, our family, our friends, and just being happy and coexisting with everyone else on this absurd spinning ball. That’s certainly something I’ve seen while I’ve been here and maybe the world would be a little bit better if we could all remember that.

I hope you have had as much fun reading this as I have had writing it. I’m sorry for the cheese, but I wish I could have taken each and every one of you in my pocket so that you could have been there for every moment of what has truly been the best experience of my life. (Except for maybe the boudin – I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.)

I love y’all and I’ll see you Stateside!

Kate