Time is flying! I’ve been here for almost 3 months and I have gone through a storm of feelings and sensations.
I have traveled, I have known amazing people, I have laughed and I have cried, but the most important thing is that I have learned.
I spent my 24th birthday surrounded by new people, I received gifts and letters that demonstrated that although we have spent little time together, we are a family.
I went to Philadelphia to see the Pope, the Argentinian Pope on September. His words, his Spanish homily and his message based on family values made me think about my own family in Argentina. They are definitely a crucial part of my life. Pope Francis invites us to think about the love we can transmit to our family members in small daily acts:
“These little gestures are those we learn at home, in the family; they get lost amid all the other things we do, yet they do make each day different. […] They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion. Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work. Homely gestures. Like a blessing before we go to bed, or a hug after we return from a hard day’s work. Love is shown by little things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become faith.”
I would really like to be home now, in Argentina, practicing all these examples of tenderness and affection. We all need them; we all deserve them.
I also visited DC during the Fall Pause in October with my friends from Spain and Argentina. We had a great time together and we visited a lot of places. I really enjoyed being there and learning so many interesting facts about American history and culture.
When I was coming from DC to Dickinson, I really felt that I was coming home. I was anxious to see my friends just to share our trips. I insist on this: we are a family. We have meals together, we study together, we share our problems and our goals, we are here to share the amazing experience of learning in a different culture and teaching ours.
I have cried with the letters that my family and my friends have written, I have taken deep breaths after doing FaceTime with my boyfriend and I have wanted to hug my niece and my nephew more than once. But I am here, 12,000 km away, learning about others, learning about myself, my reactions, my goals, learning from challenges and emotions.
It is coming to an end; everybody says that after Thanksgiving the semester is almost done. The months spent in Carlisle have been tiring but exciting and I feel a deep gratitude towards the ones who have stayed with me here at Dickinson and at home. Everybody has helped me some way or other, with gestures, with companionship, with words of wisdom and with inspiring messages.
It is true: the semester will be over and I’ll go back home. But I just hope to see the people who have been part of this amazing adventure again. Sometime, somewhere. I can’t wait to share all the events that have taken place during my Dickinson experience with my family and friends and I can’t wait for my ‘Dickinsonian friends’ to come to Mendoza to know my people and my place!
I left my home in August, but I will also leave my home here at Dickinson, where I have spent great and unforgettable months. Home is not a physical place; it is where your heart is. I am really looking forward to coming home to hug everybody, but I am also ready to visit the other ‘houses’ that I have in so many places around the world.
My Dickinson experience will never end, I’ll always feel grateful for this opportunity and I’ll always be ready to come back here or to visit the people that during this semester have been my colleagues and my friends.
