After a few days of decompression, I now feel ready to attempt to articulate something I learned over my two weeks in Berlin.
When you are in Europe, you can wear the hat that you can't wear in America because your friends will make fun of you. And it will make you trust yourself, because the world indeed continues to turn: life carries on as usual all around you and whatever hat you have chosen. And it will make you own your choices, not only in Europe but always and fiercely, because the world is too big, and if you are wearing the same boring hat as everyone else you may be lost.
Not that being lost is always a bad thing.
