Like a freshly cut tree….

….this post is pretty sappy.

Ayyyyy

I’m never branching out into different types of humor. I think I’ll stick to tree puns. I’ll never leaf my old ways. I’m rooted in wordplay. Wood you like me to get to the point?

That, my friends, was the brainchild of “I’m sad my study abroad friends are leaving soon and I can’t sleep” me, circa 2:09 am. Honestly. That’s what my near-sleep brain resorted to in the middle of the night before drifting off into dreamland. Rather than addressing the sadness in a, I don’t know, constructive way, my mind created a series of groan-worthy puns about trees, of all things. Trees.

My brain’s a little birch.

I’ve been hesitant to write something like this because frankly, I like to write about what the people want. (That’s you. You’re “the people.” Hello. If you get the chance, would you mind letting me know what you actually want?) I might be lying to myself here, but I like to think you’re at least slightly entertained by the times when I’m in that story-telling sweet spot combo of flustered/awkward/embarrassed, which is an unfortunately large amount of time in my life.

I’m fairly certain despite my mother’s best efforts to convince me otherwise, nobody really wants to know about the all too present topic of my feelings. It’s 2015; Age of The Millennial, a time when we are urged to share everything but even the suggestion of a sincere emotion, a time when facetiousness is favorited and irony is ideal. So, in my altruistic internet effort of the day, here’s a dose of authenticity.

I’m melancholy in the loveliest way. I’ve made incredible friends in the past four months abroad. They’re the kind of friends who build me up and make me even happier to be alive. They’re once-in-a-lifetime friends. They’re the people who have reassured me that, what do you know; good friends will love me for who I am. They’re beautiful people, truly, and nearly all of them are flying to their respective homes in the continental U.S. of A. on Saturday.

I’m not sure why I didn’t think about the fact that I really care about people and watching my friends leave halfway through my program would be the emotional equivalent of perpetually dropping a flawless, double-chocolate gelato until the end of time, but hey, here I am. Terrible. It’s terrible.

Watching all of these beautiful people leave is like going back home after a great trip; it’s sad, but it’s only sad because the trip was something worth missing. So thank you, friends, for being the trip I’ll always wish I could go back to. Have a safe flight home.

I’ll miss you.

Pictures of nature go great with introspection, no? Selections from Ortisei, Italy, and Innsbruck, Austria.