The first day of summer finally came exactly three weeks ago. However, it only felt like an extension of what the weather has been like for me since January, minus the occasional unbearable asian humidity (thank god). It's already been more than a month since I came back from Asia and I still find it hard to properly answer when people ask "So how was Hong Kong/ exchange?". This post has been sitting in my drafts for way too long as I brainstormed thoughts and memories.
It was good in so many ways.
The thought of what I left behind only hit me towards the last few days of exchange. That I wasn't only leaving a city I could call a second home away from home but also the people and the experience of falling in love with a lifestyle that would never be the same. Booking last-minute flights for the upcoming weekend, taking bumpy minibus rides to get to the city, eating michelin star dim sum four days in a row, being in a pack of exchange students taking a cab back from LKF at 6 in the morning, late night seafront walk and talks on campus... It was only four months in a life but a completely different life in four months.
Time flew by. Everything seemed to happen on a separate, accelerated time line as we all knew the sands of our exchange semester hourglass would eventually run out. Knowing we all had a deadline to do all the things on our bucket lists and much more, it was the perfect opportunity to get out of your comfort zone. People who met the same week could end up booking flights for the upcoming weekend. You could get closer to people exponentially faster by traveling with them. Traveling can bring out the best but also the worst in you and others. You learn more about not only the kind of people you like to be surrounded by but also a lot more about yourself and how independent you can be while abroad.
Having been to 12 different cities in different countries around Asia for the past few months has been a hell of a ride. I didn't know I enjoyed traveling before I left, mainly because I had never taken a flight alone before. I slowly found a new passion in traveling. The differences in culture, people, lifestyle. It's one thing to talk about it but another to see it in front of your eyes and experience the reality of some people in other parts of the world. As cliche as it sounds, traveling is truly one of the only expenses that makes you richer.
But more valuable than anything are all the great people you meet along the way. Exchange basically felt like getting thrown into a pit with strangers from all different backgrounds and completely different personalities and being told to get along. You meet people that you click with from the start but who are so different from your friends back home. You will find yourself opening up to them at several occasions. I realized that the more you're honest and open, the more you'll attract this type of people too in your life. You definitely can't please everyone and you shouldn't. Even along the way, friendships can and will change for the worse or for the better from one day to another. For reasons that no one knows or no one can even fully understand. Sometimes, life just happens.
“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” –Miriam Adeney
So dear Hong Kong, thank you for teaching me to always be grateful and to not take any moment for granted. And to each one you reading this, thank you for the life-long memories.
Photo by Irwin Chan
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