Hey there Kristy*,
You know your friend a lot better than I do, but here's what I think from an outside perspective. In my experience, once you return from any long-distance trip, you never come back the same. I have a friend who had a stint in Europe, and she admits to it having changed her also. She explained it as just making her more wiser; you always hear about how big the world is, but you never realize understand it until you've visited outside your own realm and comfort zone.
In the case of your friend, I think that she might have experienced something that totally changed her mindset. This could have been either a good or bad experience, but in any case it seems to still linger in her mind. It's impossible to say what she saw, went through, or still remembers without asking her straight out. The best thing to do is to continue being a good friend as you've been doing, and try to get her to open up to you. The only way you can know how to deal with this is to try and understand not only that she's changed, but why.
Start by getting just the two of alone somewhere, and make it clear that you're worried about her and the state of your friendship. You're obviously very concerned about her, and she needs to know that. You could begin by just idle chitchat, kind of transition into a serious talk. Perhaps you could just start talking about what you were doing those 3 weeks that she was gone; then, move into asking her little harmless questions about her trip. If she's close-mouthed, then gently call her on it. Explain that you really want to be her friend, and that you just want to know if you did anything to change the friendship, and if not, then ask if there's anything wrong then. Maybe she misses Europe ... my friend was really sad after she got back too. Just try to get her to realize that you're here to listen and to be her friend. Best of luck.
I'm all ears,
*Odessa |
