the end

It’s always the little things; there are so many little things I will miss, so many I will be glad to return to, and others I will be glad to escape… at least until I realize that by escaping them I have left everything else behind as well. I will be glad to leave the chkachkachka of the streetlights and the clickity clack of the trams on Swanston… but I will miss the sound of horse-hooves and the amazing tram transportation. I will miss the cheap walk-and-eat sushi rolls, Uncle Tobby’s Nut Feast (now my all-time favorite cereal), and the magical sun dried tomato spread I have fallen in love with… but I will be glad to return to a place where you don’t have to travel to the Jewish suburb to buy bagels. I will be glad to escape our miniature refrigerator for three and will be happy to return to a kitchen with an oven. I will be glad that I don’t have to fear losing dollar and two-dollar coins if change falls out of my pocket… but I will miss counting up my change to find that it adds up to real money (as a result of said coins), the differently colored dollar bills, and knowing that everything I buy is actually cheaper because of the exchange rate… and it will bother me that I have to deal with pennies again. I will miss my view of the Victoria State Library (and the hodgepodge of people out front), and looking out my window to find socialist protests… but I will be glad not to be woken up by the boom of microphone voices. I will be glad to escape the sidewalks of Melbourne where everyone seems to walk straight down the middle towards one another… but I will miss the abundance of expansive green parks throughout the city that almost make up for the hustle and bustle. I will miss the constant supply of festivals, and the Aussie lingo (though I intend to bring some of that home with me). I suppose all good things must end, with all benefits there are disadvantages, and whenever one chapter ends another begins. The clichés could go on endlessly but, despite being excited to return home, I will miss Melbourne and Australia, terribly. There is no doubt about it.

I feel sort of as though I ought to bring closure to my blog somehow… rather than ending abruptly. But I haven’t the faintest idea how to go about that, nor am I entirely sure that I want to try. I am just writing this final post to say… that’s all folks. Becca’s junior year adventures have come to an end, thus “Becca’s junior year adventures” is ending as well. The trivial things above are all that I'm going to write down— I have no intention of summarizing my experiences or reflecting on the year (or even semester) as a whole. I wouldn’t know where to begin. I have learned and changed and grown and (again) all of these sorts of cliché things. But, as I always argue, I have not become a different person; I never do, I just continually become more myself and gain an increasingly enhanced understanding of who that is. So… thanks for reading my blog and letting me share with you some of my stories. There are heaps more...