The anticipation of returning from abroad

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The Cold, Hardt, Truth

The anticipation of returning from abroad

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Craig Hardt

Columnist

January 21, 2011

Sitting out on my veranda overlooking the pool and the blue Caribbean Sea while taking in the warmth of another cloudless, sunny day in Barbados, a strange thought entered my head: "I can't wait to go back."

After four months of living and studying in Italy, a country home to some of the most beautiful man-made and nature-made landscapes in the world (and really good pizza!), and another month on the sunny Caribbean island of Barbados, the idea of being excited to head north to the frozen ground and blustery wind of Bowdoin's main Quad might seem preposterous, if not downright insulting to those of you who have spent winter scraping ice off your cars and shoveling snow off your driveways.

But I assure you, it's not that I don't appreciate where I am now, or lack sufficient nostalgia for where I've just been, but I can't help but feel a tinge of enthusiasm at the prospect of a new semester at Bowdoin.

Aside from my foolhardy yearning for a return to cold weather and heaps of homework, the biggest source of my anticipation derives from the many reunions next semester will bring. For example, I will be reacquainted with Bowdoin Dining and its endless line of exquisite soups.

I will make my triumphant return to Bowdoin's gym after gaining close to ten pounds during my semester abroad (all muscle obviously?) and I will find my familiar corner desk in the library where I hypothetically would have studied at had I not spent most of last spring playing Fifa 10 on Reed House's incredibly large television.

I look forward to my walk from Brunswick Apartment to Sills and can't wait to remember what it's like watching the sunset at four. I will see my professors again, and be genuinely happy go to their lectures.

After experiencing Italian university and its form of organized chaos, I have become far more appreciative of the well-organized and personal nature of a Bowdoin education.

But most importantly, my return to Bowdoin means a reunion with many of my closest friends: friends who have been studying abroad on every continent of the world, and friends who have remained at Bowdoin.

It means many more wonderful memories with the incredible people Bowdoin College brings together and a new, fresh beginning to old friendships, as well as the possibility of forming new ones. This is what makes Bowdoin special, and this is why I really can't wait to go back.

That, and keg beer.

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