How lucky am I? It's been 6 weeks and I have traveled all over Greece, completely adjusted into the Greek culture, made the city of Thessaloniki my temporary home, tried the most authentic Greek food (and quite a bit of Greek beer/wine), saw the most incredible Greek monasteries on Mt Athos, walked on the most beautiful beaches including the famous black sand beach in Santorini, did insane water sports like tubing and parasailing over the most tropical island, rode a donkey u...p a mountain, hiked up an active volcano, swam in a hot springs, 4wheeled around the island of Santorini, traveled to Delphi and took a selfie, spent a day in Athens hiking up the acropolis and saw the Parthenon, finished my philosophy ethics class strong while loving every minute of it, received an official sailing license to sail a boat, learned more about the economy than I ever thought I would have by living in the middle of Greeces massive economic crisis, met the most amazing people who were strangers at first but now feel as if they are family, grew more independent than I have ever been and am genuinely proud of myself that I accomplished all that I did in the past month and a half. I was so nervous and scared to travel a forgein country on my own but now I feel so confident and it seems like I can take on any challenge that comes my way. I am more aware than ever of how lucky I am to have experienced this amazing opportunity and I will forever be thankful that it was me who got to take this chance. I encourage anyone who has dreams of traveling to do anything and everything you can to make it happen because even though it's a lot of hard work getting to where you want to be, it will be worth it in the end. You can do whatever you set your mind to no matter how big or crazy your dreams are! Thank you again to everyone who supported and/or donated to make it possible for me to experience this once in a life time opportunity. It was as if I was meant to be here all along & I realize that maybe this isn't really the end... But just the start of a new way of living. Thank you Greece, I will forever hold on to these memories of the most magical summer I had in this beautiful country.
