End

So, my time in Ukraine has come to an end, but I will remember it forever.  Leaving was especially difficult.  As I looked around my room, devoid of all personality again, I felt an overwhelming sadness come over me.  I had known that my time to leave was approaching weeks before, but I ignored it out of self-denial.  Ukraine was my home for nine months.  I grew comfortable and attached to the people and the city where I lived.  I thought differently and I was exposed to a new way of life.  Living in America is a truly odd thing.  When you're there you don't think about the rest of the world too often.  The country is so big that news from around the world doesn't get a chance to be presented.  People go through there daily life without giving Ukraine, or any other country for that matter, a second thought.  But the fact is that there is a whole world outside our borders.  A world filled with people that are similar and different from us at the same time.  For me, living in Ukraine made me feel like a world citizen.  I wasn't an American, I was a human being.
I realize that traveling abroad isn't possible for everyone, but if the opportunity ever presents itself you have a obligation to accept.  Not in that you'll die if you don't, but that you will limit yourself of a possible experience that could change your life forever.  I know that Ukraine has changed me forever.  At times it was difficult being so far from home, but when I look back I don't remember those times.  I remember the good times.  I remember going to Kiev, Lviv, Odessa, and living in Chernivtsi.  I remember long train and bus rides.  I remember terrifying taxi rides and walking across the Ukrainian-Romanian border at 8:30 at night just to get to class the next day on time.  I remember playing paintball in an abandoned army barracks, going sledding on Orthodox Christmas, walking through the park as the last winter snow fell, visiting the Odessa catacombs, sipping Ukrainian beer, getting lost in housing complexes at night, seeing live bands at Public,  walking for hours in the spring day with friends, my birthday and all the vodka it entailed, countless conversations with people where I either understood everything that they said or nothing, my frustrating Russian classes, my awkward experiences in the International Office, the labyrinth of Kalinivsky Market, the Kiev metro and its long escalators, the difficult to pronounce street names, the cake dance, and all of my friends.  I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. 
People always used to ask me why I decided to study in Ukraine and for a long time I didn't have an answer, but now I do.  I decided to study in Ukraine because it has the most amazing culture, cities, and people.  I can't wait until I can go back again.