Linda L. is currently a junior at SYA France and a Campus Storyteller. She comes to SYA from St. Mark's School.

Earlier this month SYA France underwent some changes. New faces appeared in the hallways as old faces were missed. Friends returned from vacation to gather back in the city of Rennes. First day of class we gathered around the new students with excitement, hearing their backgrounds and sharing our stories. After school, we watched as they squealed in excitement over the minute cultural discoveries whose strangeness dulled through our months here. Through their chattering and anticipation I saw the rest of us, the ones who have been here since the very beginning. We grabbed them by the hand as we pointed them towards our favorite cafes where we spend our afternoons working, favorite thrift stores for the best finds, favorite parks to walk through as we tell our most learned advice here in France. 

Through meeting these new students I realized how much I have grown and changed since the beginning of this school year. At the very beginning I too needed navigation apps everywhere I went, I too held anticipation and uncertainty into every store I walked to, I too met every thing with overwhelming excitement and a little bit of fear. 

However, what replaced that original feeling, unnoticed until this very moment, was a feeling of homeliness, a sense of security that roots from mastery of the ways of Rennes. Walking through the city, each step feels at home. The drastic change I underwent in just a few months sounds unimaginable to me just at the beginning of the school year, but I’m finally realizing that I have found a home in Rennes.