Humble Brag

Today was my first day with nothing to do and nothing in the near future.  I had my last two finals yesterday and I am officially (FINALLY) done with my first semester here at Uni Heidelberg.  Oh my goodness.  I completed an entire semester (16 very long weeks) in GERMAN!  I honestly would not even believe it myself if I hadn’t just suffered through it.  I never thought my German would come to the level it has and I never expected to improve as much as I have.  I know this post is already a little brag-y and I literally just started it, but wow am I proud of myself.  I have struggled through and overcome so much and being finished with the semester just feels like an incredible accomplishment.  I do not even know what to say or how to put into words how I am feeling.

It is fitting that this big accomplishment happened yesterday.  Yesterday, February 5th, marked six months of me being in Germany.  Six months.  That is half of my journey.  When I first arrived, I was a wreck.  I was so homesick, and meek, and frankly terrified of what this journey would entail.  And I still have bad days.  But I also feel like I have aged and gained 10 years of experience in only a few months.  I have said this before, but when you embarrass yourself a hundred different ways in another language, all in one day, you really just stop focusing on the insecurities that life brings.  I feel so much more sure of myself and grounded and brave.

Okay, this whole post is starting to sound brag-y now.  But I just felt like I needed to share because this truly has not been easy for me.  It is one of my greatest accomplishments now though.  I have to admit that there were many, many days where I did not think I would ever get to this point.

So for now, I am just basking in my accomplishment until the eventual boredom catches up with me.  I am one of those weirdos who actually likes school, and now that I have nothing to do, I am sure I will get a little stir crazy.  The weather is finally warming up a bit here, so I will probably start hiking more often, and I still have my trips in March to look forward to!  For now, I will just be relaxing and finding a new Netflix show to watch because they killed off one of my favorite characters in my usual show and I am not ashamed to admit that I took that loss personally and will be boycotting the show (kidding, sort of, LOL.  The show is actually currently filming its new season so I am forced to take a break for now).

I hope everyone is doing well back home and that your 2019 has started off just as life-changing as mine.