After being away from anything familiar has made me realize that I am very strong and how much I give to people. In the beginning, I had a long list of people that I would text with frequently. Then, over the years, the text started to fall off and no one visited. I’m not mad but grateful because this lesson has been an extraordinary one. My happiness doesn’t depend on the people I surround myself with. Also, the fact that distance has lead to our communication not being as frequent doesn’t make me love them any less.

I used to be a person that surrounded himself with people constantly. If I was surrounded by people, I was happy. If I wasn’t surrounded by people, I was miserable. This wasn’t fair to my friends or to my boyfriend. I need to be around people to take care of them. I am the rescuer in my family so this role is not uncommon to me.

Over the past 2.5 years, I have grown so much and probably had more alone time than most people could only dream of. I have seen so much of the world and met people from more places than I visited. It is miraculous to think that I got my passport just short of 4 years ago. It came with blank pages and it is now almost full. I feel blessed beyond belief.

I have made many friends and my happiness is not dependent on them and I don’t have to surround myself with people to be happy. I often find true happiness when I am walking alone in the streets of wherever I am in the world. This happiness is felt in my body and on my face. It is feeling that I can’t describe accurately. It feels like there is so much happiness that I could burst.

I love all of my friends. I miss them. I rarely miss home. However, in those rare moments, I miss my mom and a select few because I cling to the memories that I have made with each and every one of them.