By Eleanor O’Hagan
Columnist
The snow has come to Austria, Advent Markets are popping up in every little town throughout the hills, the sense of the familiar Christmas spirit is swirling in the air. So is the familiar sense of stress as students prepare for finals.
The foothills of the Austrian alps have become something extraordinary for me personally. The best way to put it is the way you felt about your backyard as a small child. It was familiar, something you knew well, and yet there was always adventure around the corner, a quest to go on, a beast to vanquish.
Now not only have I lost that sense of wonder in my own backyard, but now I am losing my new yard of Gaming. So……now what? Now nothing, the adventure still awaits!
I think we all tend to see our lives in phases, in semesters, school years, seasons, you name it. These are all good things to keep track of, knowing yourself and the times you’ve changed is a good thing. But if you only look at pieces of the puzzle it makes no sense.
This piece of the puzzle known as the Austria Program has been amazing and full of adventurous moments. But the moments and the part of my adventure at those times on their own are not enough. They can’t stand alone, without the rest of all the adventures that led me to this Austrian semester and without all the adventures to come these moments won’t make a coherent puzzle.
If you have taken a philosophy class, which I’m assuming you have as you’re most likely a Franciscan student, you know the importance of the whole. You as a whole person are far more important then the pieces that make you. They are merely fragments of what you are or will be.
The adventure doesn’t end at the close of a semester, there’s no brand-new adventure waiting for you when you return home or back to school. It’s one long adventure that goes on and on.
So, to conclude our time together, with me as your clumsy correspondence in Austria, I will leave you with this for thought; how will you make sure you’re aware of the adventure? In the midst of tracking time and change, as you stumble through the mundane, boring routine of life or dullness of Christmas break how will you remember the adventure?