By: Sheridan Kate Murray, foreign correspondent

It was cold and rainy on the morning of March 30, as I hurried out of my third floor flat, purple suitcase in tow. I hastily phoned a cab to meet me at the corner of Kelvinhaugh street, which I clamored into while reciting the address of the Jury’s Inn located in the Glasgow city center. As the cab approached the hotel, I wrapped my cardigan closer to my body in an attempt to stave off the upcoming cold blast. I exited the car, clunky suitcase trailing behind me, and entered the lobby where I was immediately greeted by hugs from my mother and father.

When I decided upon Glasgow for my study abroad location, my parents immediately announced that they would be visiting me at some point in the semester. Approximately one month into my stay, they confirmed that they would be coming for a week in April to spend time exploring Glasgow, Edinburgh and the highlands with me. I made a note of their plans and distinctly remember feeling that it would be ages until I saw them. I knew then that once they came, it would be a true marker that my semester-long journey of self-discovery was winding down.

Feeling the embrace of my parents was both comforting and jarring. I was so purely excited to see them, to be around them and to experience Scotland again through their eyes. At the same time, I fully recognized that them being in my city meant that it would not in fact be “my city” much longer after all.

I had the privilege of spending 10 days with my parents, exploring all that Scotland had to offer. We fed wooly cows in the highlands and hiked up the Old Man of Storr mountain range. We toured the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and I showed them the gloriously distinguished campus of the University of Glasgow. We bonded over many pints of draught beer and countless orders of fish and chips drenched in malt vinegar. I got to share my Scotland with them in an incredibly meaningful way.

More than that though, I got to share myself with them in a new and exciting way. The role reversal of me suddenly becoming the tour guide and travel expert was a novelty not lost on any of us. I phoned cabs and made dinner reservations with my United Kingdom phone number, I purchased and handled our train tickets and navigated bustling Glasgow streets to point out the best pubs and hidden restaurants. I was able to demonstrate my newfound self-sufficiency and independence in a way that made us all feel so reassured and excited about my time abroad.

On our last night together in an Edinburgh pub, my parents tearfully confessed that while they were initially acutely nervous about my semester abroad, they are so incredibly proud of the woman I have become. They confided in me that they had never seen me behave or seem so much like myself, the daughter they raised to be strong, confident and independent. This is a feeling I had been sure about for quite some time, but to hear it from them made me feel like being in Glasgow was truly the path I was meant to take.

On a foggy morning in Edinburgh around 5 a.m., my parents departed for the airport. After a sweet goodbye, I boarded my own train back home to Glasgow. As I looked out the window and watched the rolling green sheep-dotted hills pass with each approaching stop, I realized that while my parents were leaving, they were taking a piece of me and my semester with them. It’s exactly a month now until I return home, leaving this chapter of my life behind. I know, though, that wherever life takes me, I will carry Glasgow with me always.

After I made my decision to come abroad, I listened to the song “Rivers and Roads” by the Head and the Heart obsessively. It made me think of home, of my friends and family that I would be leaving behind when I came to Glasgow. On that train trip back home to my third floor flat, that emotion-packed song graced my earbuds. Hearing it for the first time in a while brought about the same sort of nostalgic feelings of missing a place and the people in it. But this time I thought of nothing but the people, memories and places I would be leaving behind as I boarded that plane home from Glasgow. I thought of the fact that Glasgow is where I truly became myself, and that this experience will never leave me, though I will soon be physically separated from it.

“Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers ‘til I reach you.”