Heimweh. It was one of the first words I learned in Germany, as I was asked time and time again about if I felt it. Homesickness. 

While I’m too busy every day to spend much time thinking about Monroe, especially when I look out into the mountains and see an evening sky painted with hot air balloons and forests, I have recently found myself feeling “homesick” not for a place itself, but for the people that make it such.

I have a countdown on my phone labeled only with the names of my family members, my dog and my friends, reminding me daily when I will see them next. 

Lately, I have been waking up every day and checking my countdown, looking forward to the day that I board a plane back to people and places familiar to me rather than grateful for the beautiful places and interesting people I see and meet each and every day here.

So perhaps it was fate that led me scrolling down the hundreds of forgotten notes on my phone’s app today, but one that I came across reminded me why I’m here, and why I should continue to be thankful for every second that I have left. 

Between grocery lists, links to websites for class and the occasional drafted email, the “notes” app on my cellphone is predominantly home to quotes from books, movies, or poems that I found particularly compelling, so it wasn’t surprising to me at all when I found a line from a poem I once read and had long since forgotten, but the words rang truer to me today than they ever could have before. 

“Don’t take for granted a place you have experienced,” it said. While the words themselves were true enough, what struck me the most was the date on which I had originally written the note: June 15, 2014. To most people the day most likely holds no historical significance, but I realized pretty quickly that it was in the middle of my first ever trip to Germany.

As I finish my final 32 days, 10 hours and 35 minutes in the country, I’ll keep in mind the reminder that 16-year old Shannon left for me, and not take a second for granted.

— Shannon Rabotski is a 2016 graduate of Monroe High School and is a junior at Drake University. She is spending the year studying abroad in Tubingen, Germany. She can be reached at shannon.rabotski@drake.edu.