Vit Síggjast

Hi.

It's July 31st and I'm sitting in the same spot, right down to the chair, where I wrote my first blog post on August 10th of 2013 (Starbucks in the Copenhagen airport). The biggest goal of my exchange year has been fulfilled. It was light years harder to say goodbye to the Faroe Islands than it was to say goodbye to Minnesota.

I would tell you about my summer in the Faroes, but I would waste everyone's time by going through every detail, so I'll just say this. The weather was absolutely perfect, it was light out almost all day and night, I enjoyed a great music festival with friends (G! Festival), and spent the national holiday (Ólavsøka) saying goodbye to my friends, family and a country that has grown to hold its own special place in my heart.

And then suddenly it was time to leave.

It just can't be over yet. It can't just end, can it? Before I fell asleep last night, I was worried because I didn't feel sad at all. I didn't really feel excited either, I just felt nothing. I woke up this morning at 5:30am to mind heaps of messages from friends telling me to have a safe trip home, and that they will miss me, and then the tears came. They still haven't stopped. In the shower, in the car, at the airport, on the plane, and now in Starbucks.

I wouldn't call them sad tears. For sure, there is some sadness built up inside them, but there is also happiness. I have so much happiness and thankfulness and overall love for my year in the Faroe Islands. It was so much more than I could have ever hoped. I thought a place like this would only exist in my dreams. To find out that it's real, and that I got to live there and create a life for myself there, fills me with a powerful feeling of life. I know life isn't typically used as a feeling, but that's the only way I'm able to describe it. I'm feeling very life today.

I have so many emotions that it's not at all boring to spend endless hours sitting in airports and on planes. It gives me more time to think about how thankful, happy, sad, excited, drained, and how much I already miss my beautiful country.

I will be back. Maybe next year or maybe in five years, but I will be back. The Faroe Islands has become a part of my life in a way that I never thought it would. When you become an exchange student, you pay a certain price. Your life is split into two forever, and it's absolutely wonderful and absolutely terrible. You'll never feel completely at home again, because your heart is in two different places, both far away from each other. I'm afraid that I'll spend the rest of my life constantly "going home".

I want to give a genuine thank you to everyone that made my year possible, and I want you to know that I will try to pay it forward in the future... I am now a firm believer in the Rotary Exchange Program.

I arrive in Minnesota at 7pm this evening, so this will be my last post... Thank you to all who enjoyed reading. I certainly enjoyed writing.

Bye for now,

Katie