The realization of summer ending suddenly hit me as we finished up our final oral exams and my calendar started to remind me of my flight home. Consequently, I filled my last week in Jordan with more activities than usual in fear of wasting the remaining chances to connect with my friends and the greater environment around us.

There’s more to life outside Amman. Maybe and maybe not. Oftentimes, our brains tend to associate certain places with memories, actions, and attitudes. Inevitably, after familiarizing myself with Amman, the city has become a place of comfort to me while the rest of Jordan became “adventures and fun”.

The sudden outbreak of COVID halted my four years of high school in Jordan in December 2020. The desire to advance my Arabic language skills and reconnect with the local culture brought me back to Jordan this summer. It is definitely a strange feeling having to re-navigate Amman as an adult as opposed to being my 14-year-old self.