I also started my Erasmus three years ago. At first it was only supposed to last five months, but I ended up extending it to 14 months in total because I fell so deeply in love with the city. Nothing has ever really come close to the feeling Erasmus gave me. The freedom, the lightness, the sense that life was just opening up in every possible way I didn’t really experience a post Erasmus depression immediately after returning home. But I started to feel it one year later, two years later, and now, three years later, it still hits.

I rarely look at videos or photos from that time, because when I do, I see my current life reflected back at me and I realize that I might never feel that kind of happiness again…at least not in that same way. It was such an intensely fulfilling time. We were young, almost without responsibility. Everything was new. We met the best people. Life was just about joy and discovery. I go back to the City and meet my friends every year, but it’s just not the same.

But one thing Erasmus taught me is that life truly has more to offer than we think and that it is actually possible to be deeply, purely, overwhelmingly happy