New Home - New Adventure

Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You'll find what you need to furnish it - memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.~ Tad Williams

So it is incredibly hard to keep up with a blog. Those of you who can do it religiously – well done. For me, it has become something that I know I have to do, but I am either too busy or too lazy to do it. In fact, I have three weeks of blogs typed up – but just haven’t posted them yet. Weird right?

Well, this post, which will be the first of three or four consecutive posts, contains some pretty exciting news. After this post, I will upload photos and entries from my adventures. You’ll learn about my classes, my friends, and the lovely beaches that cover Uruguay.

But, first and foremost, I have officially decided to make Uruguay my home until Christmas. Many of you already know the exciting news, I could hardly contain myself when I found out. This decision was one of the easiest, yet most difficult decisions I have had to make.

Let me explain – It was easy because from the moment I arrived in South America, it felt like home. Yes there are plenty of things I've had to get used to, like milk in a bag instead of a carton and wind that makes the Windy City look like a summer breeze. Before classes here even began, I contacted my adviser and the study abroad office and asked them if it was possible to continue for a year. Their answer: NO. There was one tiny fact I was unaware of: IB students cannot study abroad for more than one semester in an IB school. It makes sense when you think about it. These schools are direct exchange programs – meaning for every student we send, they send one to USC. If someone studies for two semesters, well, that’s two spots for one student. For schools in high demand, this can be problematic. However, this is the first time we have had a student at ORT, and so thanks to over month of discussion about my different options, I was granted special permission to remain in Uruguay.

A decision like this does not come without its fair share of negatives. The negative that weighs most on my heart is how much I will miss my friends and family. Not a week goes by that I don’t talk to my mom or some of my Delta Sigma Pi fraternity brothers back at school. Sure we have the internet, which makes it infinitely easier to communicate, but there is something to be said for being there in person. It’s as if I am constantly watching the highlights from last night’s football game, but I can never watch it live. I get the play by play, but it’s so much better to see it in action. This brings me to my second negative – I will be missing my final Carolina football season. If you don’t understand how important your senior year football season is, you haven’t lived college. It is the last big “hoo-rah” before the real world starts. Football at Carolina is a lifestyle. It is a full day event filled with food and drinks, friends, cowboy boots, pearls, and of course Williams Brice Stadium filled with tens of thousands of cheering fans (and some outsiders from the opposing team). First game of the season sends chills down your spine (right next to the sweat from the good ol’ Carolina heat) and the final game brings tears for the end of an era. I’ll be missing this. Believe me, it’s a hard realization.

What makes it easier is the notion that this is where I belong. I can’t shake the feeling that Uruguay is going to help me figure out what on earth I am supposed to do with my life. Unlike many IB students, I don’t have it all figured out. Coming into school, I thought I wanted a big multi-national corporation. A corporate liaison between HQs in North and South America was the dream job. But, in typical Savannah fashion, my mind has changed (although to what, I do not know). I am hoping that this year abroad will help me clear my head, narrow my options. If I can’t figure out what I want to do, at least I can narrow the options by deciding what I don’t want to do.

But this is off topic – friends and family, I miss you all terribly. However, I am thrilled to call South America home for two semesters. 

See you all in 2016!