“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”

I'm sitting in the old library of my dorm, in the uncomfortable yet now familiar wooden chairs that creak everytime you make the slightest movement. There is an ambulance wailing through the open balcony window and the cool night air is dancing on the back of my neck, causing the occasional shiver.

I just watched the Eiffel Tower light up for the last time... all 20,000 of its lights illuminating the entire city, a beacon of beauty in the center of it all. My bags are packed, my flights are confirmed and in 24 hours, I will be home.

I am a cluster of emotions right now, and I don't think I will be able to fully sort them out until I am back in my one room apartment in North Philadelphia. These past five weeks have truly changed me for the rest of my life and I have never been prouder of myself for everything I have accomplished.

This entire journey all started with a dream. A longing to appease my own appetite and thirst for life and adventure, my own cravings to do something for myself for a change rather than my resume. The dream seemed so out of reach at first, with having no way of paying for it, parents who were hesitant about its purpose, responsibilities that seemed too important to blow off. It was a week before the application was due and I had thought to throw in the towel until a miracle happened, and I won a scholarship...and then another, and then another until I was able to pay for my dream through all of the time and hard work I had invested into it.

I spent the next 5 months counting down the days, wishing away the weeks, daydreaming of macaroons, the Champs Elysees, the smell of summer in Paris... And now, I have lived it, my dream... and its finally over. I have met some of the most incredible people, eaten the most delicious icecream and pastries, listened to the beautiful rhythms of the streets, indulged in too many bottles of wine, walked until my feet were as rough as the pavement beneath them. I have learned things about myself, new strengths I never knew I had, weaknesses that I worked to make better. I threw all caution to the wind and moved to Paris for five weeks to spend a summer with people I didn't know, in a city I had always loved and I have never been more proud of myself. Proud for throwing the what-ifs and should-I's out the window and just allowing myself to enjoy my beautiful life in the most beautiful city in the world.

As Hemingway so eloquently states, Paris truly is a moveable feast...and I know this summer will stay with me for the rest of my life, no matter where I go or who I meet, it will stay with me always. The people, the city, the beauty of it all wrapped up in five weeks that have changed me forever.

These past few days I have gone around the city, leaving pieces of myself in all of my favorite places. The Luxembourg Gardens, with their fields of lush sunflowers, violets and tulips and my favorite place to clear my thoughts as the sun warmed the sides of my face.... my boulangerie up the street and the woman who made sure to keep an almond croissant stashed away just for me...Bubby the gelato man and his forward, yet genuine remarks about my smile... my favorite bookstore lined with all the great classics and the coziest chairs that make you want to snuggle up with your favorite prose. This city has given me so much and all I have to give it in return is a piece of my heart, to hold on to until the next time I return. The streets, the people, the sounds, the laughter, the music... all of it runs through my veins now, entangled in my every fiber, fully apart of my very being. I am Paris, and Paris is me. As Stein so ingeniously put it, "America is my country, and Paris is my hometown."

Merci pour tout, Paris.... Jusqu'à la prochaine fois. We part only to meet again.