I've traveled before: last summer I went to China for a month with a school program and in high school I went to Germany as an exchange student. What sets this experience apart is that I'm not traveling with any sort of program or institution. Since I decided that I wanted to live abroad after college, I've planned this trip on my own, with the help of my family and friends. The process has been nerve-wracking and exciting, and so far away that I feel as though I'm preparing for something that'll never really happen. Now it's two weeks away.
I have my plane ticket. I have an apartment to move into. I have definite ideas of where to find work. All of these things are in place and still when I think about the departure, the flight, none of it seems real. Sometimes I can't wait until I'm dragging my suitcase into my room in the Zahra building, beginning my unplanned life on my own turns and in the pursuit of my dreams. Sometimes I wish that this summer would never end, that I could stay wrapped in my spiderwebby net of friends and family, beaches and rivers and roads, my beloved New England coast.
But, here I am, on the verge of the unknown. I've never lived entirely on my own, or in a foreign country, and I've never had a job that wasn't part time or full time only in the summer. I made this blog to catalog these experiences, and also to house my other writings and thoughts. Here's to the future!
