Out of sheer curiosity, would you mind sharing in a few words what was so life changing? (I am French and curious what you found great over here :))

First of all, I love you French people. Paris has a reputation for being cold and hostile to outsiders but it is not true at all for me. I've met so many wonderful people there that I still keep in touch with. Walking around the streets of Montmarte at 3AM with my friend just somehow helped reset the mind. It was life changing because I was stuck in a dead end job not even in the career I studied for. I was a CS major but ended up in tech support and then software QA. It was a really depressing time for me and my friend who was also going through the same issues as she was an Engineering grad but ended up in marketing. It was also this feeling of no real goals in life. Just traveling, meeting people with different lifestyles and breaking that chain of daily driving 1+ hour to a terrible underpaid job helped to reimagine what was possible.

Also got to do a lot of deep thinking while traveling across Europe. Wish they were more united. There are so many unbelievably talented people in Europe. It would be interesting if they could compete head on with the US and help to keep us more on our toes sort of like a second super power. I think that would be good for the world. Alas I saw how things like this are just not possible because people do not believe in it. The same problem I had before I came to Europe! Its unfortunate because Europe has all the components to be just as competitive as the US (in my opinion). :)