It’s crazy to think one month ago I was packing my bags and getting ready to spend a whole month on an island I’d never heard of with 15 strangers. Now a whole month later, I’m sitting in my room back in Columbus, Ohio reflecting on the best month of my life and wishing I could go back.
During our last week of classes, we powered through on finishing up our campaigns. My amazing group “The Little Mermaids” and I got to actually use Sprinklr and get our data from it. It was a lot of hard work for the last week, but it was nice to use everything we learned in our final project.
Kendall’s 21st birthday was on Monday and we all got dinner together to celebrate. After dinner, we all ran back to Sapphire to sing our hearts out one last time for Karaoke Monday. This day was truly unforgettable. We spent hours all doing karaoke together and just having the best time. All of us were laughing and smiling and just soaking in the good times. For the last karaoke song, we all got together and sang “Sweet Home Alabama” and then we all jumped in the pool fully clothed. We all cheered while everyone jumped and we were chanting Dr. Hayes and Dr. VanDyke’s names until they both cannonballed into the pool! We all splashed around in the pool and cherished the amazing friendships and memories we’ve made on this trip. Memories like this are the ones that I’ll be telling all my friends about how amazing studying abroad was.
On Thursday, we all went back to Philipsburg one last time to shop around and conduct interviews for our campaign. The Little Mermaids and I got to talk to some very nice families and learn some more about their travels to Sint Maarten. Right before we headed back home, we all stopped by Juggie’s for one last goodbye. Sadly Juggie wasn’t there, but we all had to go and say goodbye to one of our favorite places on the island (even though I never got my paycheck for my 15 minutes of hard work at Juggie’s)!
Friday night, we all headed to Simpson Bay to go back on the catamaran for a dinner cruise. Unlike the catamaran we went on the week before, it wasn’t private so we got to meet people from all over. I got to talk to this very nice couple for a while and I found out they were staying at La Samanna, one of the most expensive resorts on the island! As we set sail to go back home, all of us sang and danced on the boat and made the most of one of our last nights all together.
On our last night, a few of us went to Mama’s to get carryout pizza so we could eat it on the beach. We all ate our pizzas and watched the sunset. It was truly something I’ll never forget. We all sat there reminiscing on the unforgettable four weeks we just spent together, talking about some of our favorite memories and expressing how thankful we were to have such an amazing group of people on this trip. Ellie and I decided to run into the ocean with our dresses on and it was so fun! Everyone was laughing at us as we were getting hit by these huge waves. It truly felt like a movie moment.
Everyone always says “studying abroad was the best decision I’ve ever made!” and when I’d hear that I thought they were being a little overdramatic, but let me tell you, they are not being overdramatic.
When I signed up for this trip, I had no clue what to expect. All I could think was: Is this going to be fun? What if I don’t make any friends? I hope everyone likes me. Is everyone going to get along? I wonder if I’m going to click with these people. What if the professors don’t like me? What am I going to do for a whole month with people I’ve never met?
So many thoughts were running through my head and to be honest I was pretty nervous. But after spending four weeks on a little island in the Caribbean, I came out with 17 new best friends (obviously including Dr. Hayes and Dr. VanDyke) and experiences of a lifetime.
I couldn’t imagine this trip going any other way. I will definitely be bragging about this trip to everyone I meet. I’ve never been happier to have been introduced to such an amazing group of people and formed friendships that I might have never made if I didn’t go on the trip. I can’t wait to head back to Tuscaloosa and get to see everyone again. I am so grateful that I got to be a part of this unforgettable experience. I would like to thank Dr. Hayes and Dr. VanDyke for making this experience possible and a big thank you to Sint Maarten for giving me memories I’ll never forget.
Until next time,
Kate Haugh
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