It is a strange feeling when you come back to a place that is so familiar when you have been gone for an extensive amount of time. Nothing has changed about home, but everything feels different because you have changed. I have been away from home for a long time, but I was always ready to come home. However, coming home from Rome did not feel right. Five weeks is a long time on paper, but time flies when you live through it. It was very hard saying goodbye to a place I had become so acquainted with. I never realized how much the city had left an imprint on me. My friends and I had a restaurant we went to multiple times a week. We had made friends with one of the waiters. We returned to this restaurant on our very last night to see our local friend one last time. It did not set in that we were leaving until our waiter said, “Until next time, friends. It was a pleasure.” Saying goodbye to all the new friends I had made and my temporary home broke my heart. I never knew that you could create such a deep and strong connection with someone you have only known for five weeks. The first few days back in the states have been very strange but, at the same time, very refreshing. I feel like a new person in a familiar place. Nothing has changed back at home except for me.