Elon University sophomore Aubrey Crawley has a schedule she adheres to each week.

Mondays are spent working at the Allied Churches food pantry with her boyfriend, Matt Lee.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, Crawley and Lee go to Poverty and Social Justice class together, then Crawley heads back to Allied Churches to put in more hours at the food pantry.

On Thursday nights, Crawley grabs dinner with her roommate, then meets with her InterVarsity Christian Fellowship small group.

For someone who has become so settled here, Crawley said it’s hard to believe that in just two months, she will be leaving Elon for good.

Crawley is a member of Elon’s International Business dual-degree program, which means she, along with three other Elon students, will spend the next two years at Reutlingen University in Germany.

There, she will get the opportunity to explore the European business sector while experiencing a different culture — something she said enticed her when she was first applying to colleges.

“It just seemed like a great opportunity everyone would take advantage of,” she said.

Crawley said she knew in high school she was interested in pursuing international business. So, shortly after finding out about the dual-degree program, she followed up with the program adviser, Jefferson Pilot professor of economics Tom Tiemann, to get more information.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this sounds cool. I’ll apply to Elon,’” Crawley said. “Then in the spring I decided to come. I don’t think I would have chosen Elon unless the dual-degree program was here.”

Now the decision she made in high school is catching up to her. Her time at Elon is limited, and Crawley said she underestimated how hard it would be to say goodbye.

“I didn’t think [leaving] was going to be difficult at all,” she said. “I didn’t expect to make close friends I would dearly miss and not want to leave.”

Crawley’s friend, sophomore Amory Parks, said she thinks Crawley’s reluctance to go to Germany shows how much Crawley has changed in the past two years.

“In high school, she didn’t necessarily form as close of relationships as she did here,” Parks said. “I know from conversations we’ve had that she had no idea how attached she would get to people and how hard it would be to leave.”

One of these attachments — and perhaps the most significant — is to her boyfriend.

“When I started dating Matt in September, I didn’t know that we would make it and want to continue dating through Germany,” Crawley said. “He was my first serious boyfriend. A three-month relationship was long for me.”

Now Crawley and Lee said they’re in love, and friends described the couple as inseparable.

“[Being with Matt] makes me really question all the decisions I’ve made,” Crawley said. “It’s hard to know that the closer I get to him, the harder it’s going to make it for me to leave and for him to see me leave.”

And Lee said he’s struggling with Crawley leaving just as much, if not more than, she is.

“It’s honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through in my life,” he said. “You find someone you truly love and you want to have for a long time in your life. Then it’s like, ‘Oh sorry. Gotta pack my bags and leave for the next two years. It’s been nice knowing you.’”

The two said they’re trying to make the most of their time together, but it’s difficult knowing that time is limited.

“We always joke around that we’re on the beach, but there’s a cloud looming, and it’s going to rain on us,” Lee said. “It’s just hard to make the best of that time while you’re on the beach when you know there’s something coming that’s going to be a huge obstacle for you.”

Despite how tough Lee said it will be to see Aubrey leave, he believes she needs to.

“I joke around a lot, saying ‘I’ll pay you $50,000 not to go’ — not that I have that kind of money,” he said. “But in reality, I would be doing a disservice not to let her go. She has to do what’s best for her.”

Lee said Keith Urban’s song “Come Back to Me” sums up how he and Crawley feel about their current situation.

The lyrics are, “If you gotta leave, you gotta know: I love you enough to let you go. Hey, I want to hold you. I don’t want to hold you back.”

Crawley has the option of dropping out of the dual-degree program whenever she wants. In the face of all of these obstacles, she said she often has to ask herself, “Why am I doing this?”

And some days, she’s not sure.

“I don’t know what would be more worth it to me. Because obviously it’s going to be an awesome experience, but what’s the point of an awesome experience and getting ahead in your career if you don’t have people to share it with?” Crawley said. “I feel like the end game is family and people that you love. And I have people that I love here.”