Commencement

It is weird yet mysteriously beautiful to meet once more the same people that I started my U.S. journey along with, back in 2006. We have now gathered for a final Commencement Conference,
where we tied out relationships even stronger, where we told our stories for the last year, where we presented our projects.. Various and beautiful projects, each of them, made with enthusiasm and entrepreneurial skill. It's amazing how fluently every one of us is speaking English right now, no matter the topic or the joke. Some of us are real masters, they make puns and word games and use highly complicated terms for elegantly expressing simple things.

There are many things that changed in the last year, and I noticed them just now! Firstly, we are all over the culture shocks we've all been through. We're over the agitation and we found our place again, we regained our friends and parents, we got into the flow. Yet some things still remain: we don't regret one bit of what we've done and experienced in the U.S.; we all
call it the "experience that changed our lives"; we have this different glow in our eyes, because we've seen the grass on the other side and we try to grow it ourselves.

I constantly have flashbacks. While talking to the new UEPers (2008), I have flashbacks of Bard, of classes, of friends, of my beloved (yet conscientiously forgotten) New York City. But (and that's new) I have flashbacks of Budapest and the people I'm now spending my time with.
Secondly, I feel we are closer to each other and more relaxed. I personally don't feel that much intimidated by the others and I open myself to them, without discrimination. Why was I intimidated? Because since Budapest 2006 I realized how wonderful and smart and so high-quality these people are, and I could never be sure that I could measure up to them. Now I feel them as equal, as being the same yet so diverse in our languages and countries and interests and professions.
There's a lot to say about what I feel right now. But I rather keep it short (sic!) today and continue my thoughts another time.