My experience as Belly

I've recently realized that I was once like Belly. In 2015 when I was around her age (19/20), I went to Paris for a semester to learn French. In reality, I was also running away from a super messy situation with 2 guys. It wasn’t brothers (yikes), and I wasn’t engaged or anything, but people did get hurt because of me and the decisions I made while being young, immature, and in love. So I completely understand when Belly decides to leave. I was surprised to learn that in the books she actually goes to Spain, but in the show she’s going to Paris just like I did!

Paris was a dream come true for me, and it really helped me leave behind all the mess back home. I eventually went back to my home country, but by then I had grown enough to remove myself from that situation for good. I never went back to the people I was with before. I know that’s not Belly’s case (since she’s supposed to end up with Conrad), but from the recent trailer I can already see so many similarities between her experience and mine.

Getting involved with someone new who wasn’t part of the chaos at home, making friends who didn’t know me before, the feeling of starting over and finally being who I wanted to be, the freedom to focus on myself and grow... it was all so amazing.

I ended up coming back to France, and 10 years later, I can honestly say that semester in Paris shaped the rest of my life.

I think it’ll be the same for Belly, and I can’t wait to see her in the same place that changed my life a decade ago. ❤️