My Erasmus: I discovered true friendships never die.

Shared by: Megan
Erasmus Trip:  Lock Haven Liverpool
It was:  2005

I am an erasmus student from the United States. My brother and I were both doing exchange programs. He was away for a year in Austria, a high school program. Me, I went for 3 months to England. I was more than excited to go. I knew my experience would be amazing. I couldn't wait to travel, see the world through a different perspective, make new friends. I never expected to learn what I did or to make the friends I did.

The first day I arrived I met so many people. It was exciting, I wanted to make friends, so I didn't feel alone. I realized later that it was so easy to make friends, because everyone had that alone feeling. We were all in the same boat, away from family, friends and everything familiar. Those first 2 days I met some of the greatest people. We did a lot of things together right away. Going to parties, city centre, lunch.

 Are friendship started to grow in a matter of days. We all hit it off right away. I went into this experience hoping to make friends. I left with 15 best friends. Our times together were always fun. I loved going to lunch, looking around at the table and seeing some of the most amazing people. We were all so different, from different countries, but yet we had so much in common. 

We traveled, we laughed, we cried, we loved. Those friends made my Erasmus journey the best ever. We didn't think of the end, we lived in the moment. It seemed like the journey would never end. But all good things must come to an end. My last night in England my friends and I all spent together, we stayed up all night enjoying each others company. I left at 8 in the morning. None of us had slept. We stood on the corner crying, not knowing how long until we would be able to hug each other or see each other again. It was painful. I left for the airport, thinking back on my experience... on my friendship and knew that no matter what we would always be friends. 

After arriving at the airport, I stood in line for a long time. All of sudden I heard yelling. As I turned around my friends were running toward me. None of them slept, we were all basically broke and yet, they planned a bus to take them to the airport for one more goodbye. They said "we couldn't just let you leave like that" I looked at them falling asleep in the airport, waiting for me to get my luggage checked and realized, no one could understand this experience and this friendship.

No matter the distance, the time that has elapsed I know our friendship will last forever. True friendships never die.

 The most amazing thing a person could do is leave everything behind and experience something new. Be an Erasmus student.