I’d Like to Thank the Academy

Wow.  At the beginning of this journey, I honestly was not sure I would make it to this point.  I leave in 3 days and I am almost done packing.  I just have one last round of laundry to do and then I will be able to finish packing and be done.

I recently reread through all of my blog posts starting from the beginning till now.  That was such a fun thing for me to remember how incredibly excited I was to begin this journey and very refreshing to acknowledge how many obstacles I overcame throughout the year.  I am just so grateful for everything I have learned this year and how much I grew as a person.

I had my exit meeting with my program director a few days ago and it was a great end to this experience.  Reminiscing with Dr. Heckmann about where my German was at the beginning and hearing how proud of me she was made me feel like I was on cloud nine.  She asked if I enjoyed my time in Heidelberg and I felt absolutely confident in saying that this was the best experience of my life.  I wasn’t sure I would ever say that.  There were times I really wanted to quit and go home.  However, the end of this journey was such a success and it really was the best time of my life.  I have never been more proud of myself and I have no regrets.

Of course, I could not have made it through this year without help, hence the title of this blog post.  I really want to thank my parents for endlessly believing in me, especially when I did not believe in myself.  I cannot thank them enough for encouraging me to chase this dream and allowing to me to live an ocean away for a year.  I really am blessed with the best parents in the world and I cannot express how much gratitude I have for them.

I want to thank all of my friends here who stuck it out with me and supported me on my bad days.  I met amazing friends through my church community and small group, through my study abroad program, and in my classes.  Each person who I met along the way gave me such a hunger to learn more about the world and the person in it, and gave me such gratitude for the opportunity I had while here.  I have said this before, but every single day my mind is blown by all of the amazing people I have met from all over the world, just because I decided to study another language.  Communication, empathy, and recognizing the humanity in everyone is so important, and my understanding of those concepts has grown leaps and bounds through everyone I met here in Heidelberg.

I am thankful to you, my loyal fans!  Thank you for everyone who took the time to read my blogs and give me words of encouragement throughout this year.  I read all of those comments and they made my heart so full.  It was easy to feel lonely here sometimes, but you all showed me that I always had people supporting me, no matter how far away you all were.

I’ve got to thank my program directors, Dr. Hanne Heckmann and Dr. Styles Sass, even though they definitely will not see this post.  I really could not have done it without their encouragement and instruction.  I learned so much and my practical German improved so much under their tutelage.

And for anyone else I missed, just thank you.  If you had a hand in any part of this journey, I appreciated the support every step of the way.  I am so grateful for the laughs, the memories, the mess-ups, and the tears.  I cannot wait for what comes next in my life and I am going to use everything I learned here every day.

Have a wonderful day and God bless!