Time flies, and you never realize what you had until it's gone!

Being an exchange student is fun, and contains all those wonderfully glorious moments, but at the same time I am ever changing, ever growing. Learning more about life and how things work than I could ever have thought possible. Last week, I found out that my best friend, Raul, is being sent back to Brazil. This has given me a lot to reflect on, and made me realize just how important time was, and now that I look back, I also see, just how fast time flies by. Before going on Exchange, I looked at this year as intimidating, thinking it would be long and drawn out. But it's been the complete opposite. Here I am, more than halfway through, and I am wondering where the first half disappeared to. The thing with Raul is, I have never had a friend as close as him. Ever. And I thought that I had five more months left with him. Five more months of fun, laughter, carelessness, friendship. Five more months before I had to say good bye. Due to the sudden change of events, I now only have a week. A week to say unspoken words and enjoy his presence all the more. When on Exchange, exchange students are your best friends. But Raul is more than that to me-he's family. Only now that he's going, it's different than saying good-bye to my own family. When I said goodbye to them at the airport, I knew exactly when I would be seeing them again. With Raul, it's a mystery. There's a chance I will never see him again. I have never cried so many tears as I have in the past two weeks. He, Kait, and Akseli, have become my family here. People I will never forget-that I never CAN forget. They are such a constant in my life, I simply can't imagine what it's going to be like without them. I didn't think that I would have to wonder about this for another five months, but now it's all thrust into perspective. This shows me how truly special every moment was, and how much I value it. But now I value time even more. It escapes from you in the blink of an eye, leaving you not realizing what you actually had. I knew I had a friend in Raul, and thought he would always be there for me. I know he is, the only difference is, now we are continents apart. There's an expression, "life each day like it's your last" and another, " don't regret anything, because at one point it was exactly what you wanted." I plan on living my life by these. I don't want there to be regrets, only love and fun. I want to jump on all these opportunities, and enjoy every glorious, happy, tragic, hilarious, unbelievable moment that life has to offer. Raul has taught me a lot, and I love him for it. He's shown me how a true friendship is, and I will not forget it. So live for every moment, cause in the next, it could be gone.