The end is nigh, folks. My finals are over, and, at the time of writing, I believe only one final remains to be taken before everyone is done with school up here. It’s crazy how fast the semester has gone by, and I don’t say that every semester.
Montreal is changing, too. The snowfall has begun up here, but rather than turn the city into a frozen wasteland like I feared it would, the snowfall has just made Montreal adopt an alter ego. In fact, the gentle snowfall has given the whole city a serene mysteriousness, I think. Don’t get me wrong, it is cold up here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the snow and how it affects the city. It really makes me want to stick around to see the city transform the rest of the way, but I’ll get back to that later.
The combination of snow, the end of the semester, and the end of the calendar year really compels me to reflect on where I started, where I am, and where I’m going. I think it’s safe to say I’ve grown a lot over the semester. I’ve grown a lot academically for certain. The course work up here was very challenging, but really pushed me to explore my own capabilities and I’ve come out a lot stronger for pushing through it all. I’ve also gotten significantly better at French, although I still have a long way to go. Besides all that, I’ve made fantastic new friendships and developed ones into something really special. I’m sure that all sounds terribly sappy, but it’s absolutely the truth!
In spite of all this, there’s still so much more I want to do in this city! I’m completely not done learning French, I never got a chance to further explore the Musée des Beaux-Arts, I never went inside the Notre Dame here, I didn’t go to nearly as many game development events as I wanted… The list goes on! One semester isn’t nearly long enough to explore this city! I’m not done in Montreal!
Well, all these facts weighed down heavily on me for a few weeks. I’m really not done here, yet. So when I found out it would be possible to stay up here another semester and stay on track academically, well… I just couldn’t help myself! So it’s all squared away. Sure, I’m heading south for a month, but don’t worry, Montreal, I’ll be back up for most of the winter!
