Too much time, but also not enough

My time in Laramie has been more than fun. It has been an adventure that I could never have imagined. 

These past few months have been amazing, but I have hit the point I hit every semester where I am ready for the end to come. I am a little burnt out, and I am ready for summer to begin.

Being away from home, this feeling has hit a bit harder than semesters in the past because now I have the aspect of looking forward to coming home.

But with that, it also means I have limited time to spend with friends here in Laramie; because a majority of my friends here are from Europe, it is highly unlikely that I will see them for a very long time.

This leaves me with the aspect of not having enough time. My time with Sophia is slowly being cut shorter and shorter and the list of things we want to do together keeps growing.

With a little over a month left in the semester, my weekends are filling up with these adventures. But, as I said, our time is running out. It truly makes me sad  that I have such limited time.

The confliction of wanting to stay somewhere with the new found friendships and missing my friendships and family back home sometimes tears me in half. But in a way, it has propelled me to make the most out of my time in both places.

I make an effort to make my time special with the people I love from back home and the people I have limited time with here.

Even with how much I miss Minnesota, something I can never get enough of that is not back home is the mountains. For me the mountains feel like home and they are one of the things I’ll miss when I  return home.

My trips to Fort Collins, my hikes through the rugged terrain and the way the sun hugs the mountains at sunrise and sunset. Beyond friendships, these are some of the things I will miss most that Minnesota will not be able to replace.

I’m grateful for the opportunity I have been given here in Wyoming, but my heart is sitting in two places, and it is hard to know if I am ready to leave or if I want to stay forever in this beautiful temporary home.

Header photo: I am going to miss the way that the sun hugs the mountains during sunrise and sunset. (Courtesy Andrea Schoenecker)

Write to Andrea Schoenecker at andrea.schoenecker@go.minnstate.edu