grateful . “You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.” - Azar Nafisi . This past year, I was given the invaluable experience of reconnecting with family I had not seen for over a decade and to conduct wildlife conservation studies on a beautiful and lush tropical island. It was a year full of extreme highs (holidays with my loved ones, climbing high mountains with friends, finding cool endemic reptiles and amphibians, working with excellent people, luckily finding a 20-year-old car that could kick serious butt on TW mountain roads for the whole year) and some... annoyances (buying my first used car in a foreign country with little to no regulation on used vehicles, losing $2000 USD 3 days in, breaking my laptop screen 2 weeks in, living in a small village without a grocery store, driving ANYWHERE in Taiwan). After 11 months, I am ready to be home with my family and friends, but I'm not at all ready to leave my family and friends here. I am excited for future adventures, but melancholy to end this one. I am happy, sad, antsy, unprepared, all at once, but most of all, I am entirely grateful for the experience. My heart was heavy as I said my final goodbyes at the end of my Fulbright fellowship to all my colleagues, friends I've made (2 and 4-legged), and family here. As I uprooted my life in Taiwan, I take solace in knowing that I can look forward to planning a return in the future. I'll miss this beautiful island and the people on it - thank you for letting me find my place and my self here. (at Taiwan)