Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Date: December 4, 2010

Plans Have Changed…..

So, my plans have changed…a lot.

I’m now staying in Mexico for a year. Yes, this means more blogs for your reading pleasure (or at least this is the reaction I hope to receive from you, dear reader).

Due to circumstances, I’m not able to fly home for Christmas and be with my family. It’s a mixture of feelings. Chrismas in Mexico will be such a beautiful cultural experience and I have friends and “family” here to stay with. However, it’s Christmas-you know, the time to be with your family, watch Christmas movies, make cookies together. Christmas away from family? Am I crazy to be staying for a year? I miss my family, friends and Valpo so much!

Next semester, instead of living in the dorms, I’m getting an apartament with my friend Martina from Austria. It has everything I want but I’ve never lived in an apartament before and have been used to dorm life for the past two and a half years.

Living with more color and passion….and less fear

 Yes, I’ve becoming independent and stronger. It’s so scary though. At times, I want to be five years old again with my mother holding my hand instead of being twenty-two years old in a foreign country. At times, I think I’m crazy to be living my life like this with so many new experiences but then again, what is the point of life if we don’t take chances? Becoming independent is so tiring and makes me question my sanity at times but I can’t go back to the old way of living in fear and making mistakes. The best I can do is try and just stay calm. When I look at the uncomfortable and difficult times, it’s nothing compared to the positive and beautiful experiences I have had here.

Doing these kind of things while remaining true to myself and connected to the people in my life is a glorious challenge. It’s painful at times but why live in worry and fear? I’m learning to celebrate and live with color and passion….life has never tasted sweeter.

Peace in Silence

“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.”

Last week A.J. and I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland to spend Thanksgiving with his dad and sister.  It was a lovely few days with them, sharing hugs, smiles, laughter, wine, and, of course, Whisky.  Not only were he and I blessed to be with family on Thanksgiving, but the four of us shared in the first snowfall of the season.  I always seem to forget how magical that first snowfall really is, marking the beginning of a joyful Christmas season.

Our winter white invite to Edinburgh

Throughout the duration of our trip, I couldn’t quite place my finger on why it is I loved that first snowfall so much.  In any given year, I’m ready to say goodbye to winter the first time the temperature drops below forty degrees.  But, this year, it is different.  Pleasantly different.

After some stressful and seemingly treacherous driving conditions due to the snow while in Scotland, I expected myself to resent the snow that greeted me upon my return to Reutlingen.  Yet, as I write this blog, I am staring out at the snowy mountains and find it more beautiful than ever before.  It’s been an unusually quiet weekend here in Reutlingen, so quiet, in fact, that as I look out my window it’s as if I can actually see the silence.  The silence of Winter that usually causes me such restlessness has now transformed into peacefulness.

While it is probable that I am welcoming winter with such warmth because that means home is now near, I’d like to think that it’s a result of this semester’s learned lessons.  The past four months have led me to find the beauty in almost anything.  In silence, peace.  In longing, hope.  And in affliction, faith.  And so I’m left where I started:

“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.” (The Desiderata Poem)

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