Hi. Wow. So. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions. Truthfully I have been avoiding facing the music for some time. As I write this I am on a flight returning to the United States. As many of you know I was plotting to stay in Europe and live my bougie euro-dream for as long as I could, but alas here I am.
Let’s rewind to March 13--the picture to the left was coincidently taken on that day. Look at that girl. So happy. So carefree. my sweet summer child. I was living my best life and naively sharing memes about the COVID-19 situation. As I walked to work that afternoon I glanced at my phone and realized that I received an email from the Fulbright commission, and I opened it. When I tell you, my heart DROPPED- I mean I felt it in my toes. The email basically let me know that the COVID-19 situation was getting serious and that we grantees should begin to skedaddle. I was shaken, surprised and kind of confused. How had the situation gone from 0-100 so fast? I quickly filed that information as a problem for later and kept walking towards work. A few minutes later, I received a text from my supervising professor notifying me that school in Belgium was suspended until April 3rd and potentially indefinitely. It felt like the world I had just built was crumbling around me.
So now we’re here. I am crying on an empty United Airlines flight. I can’t help but feel robbed. Coming to Brussels was kind of a dream come true and I am devastated to leave like this. I didn’t get to say goodbye to a lot of the people that made this experience worthwhile. I couldn’t say goodbye to my students and thank them for how wonderful they were to me and couldn't say goodbye my dreamboat of a supervising professor. I felt like I owed so many people a proper goodbye and I was robbed of honoring their impact in my life. I have been battling with feeling like my time here was is incomplete while also being super thankful that I am in a position to return to the USA. I want to be angry, but I can’t help but be thankful that I am healthy and that I did have the opportunity to have this incredible experience. While I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about my untimely departure- I’ll leave you with some photos of people that made this experience so memorable.
