Goodbye Home. Hello Adventure!

So tonight is my last night at home.  Tomorrow I am leaving for my grandmother's house to celebrate Christmas with her.  From there I will be leaving for Hawaii in the wee hours of the 26th.  My parents and I will have the same final destination in Hawaii, but I will not be on any of the same planes with them.  We are basically chasing each other across the United States which I find pretty entertaining.  I am so excited to get a move on this journey that I am about to begin, but I am also incredibly stressed out.  For the last week I have been frantically finishing up with all of my exams, moving out of the dorms, moving back home, unpacking, repacking, going to every doctor's office imaginable to make sure I'm  AOK to go, reading journal articles and writing papers for my first program, and amongst it all saying goodbyes to some of my most favorite people.  It is has been really hard to realize that I won't be seeing the people that are such a huge part of my life for so long, and that my communication with them will be so much more limited than it is now.  I will no longer be just a text message or phone call away.  Instead I am going to be 16 hours ahead of life on the East Coast making even ichat dates difficult to arrange. 

Despite the difficulty in letting go of the people I love most, I know that I am headed to a place where I need to be.  Things have fallen into place even when I thought that they would all fall apart, and I have faith that that will continue to happen throughout my journey.  I look forward to all the unknown that I am facing.  I am excited to face my fears and jump head first into experiences that I never would have dreamed up, to learn in a completely new context, and to immerse myself in a culture that is completely foreign to me.  The fear sounds like fun!

Right now I cannot wait to simply start this trip because that will be the end of the stress I'm having now about all the things I am "supposed" to do before I get there.  I'm leaving in 12 hours and currently my room looks like a war zone and I have not made final packing decisions AT ALL. How in the world is a girl supposed to pack for SEVEN whole months without freaking out?!  Beyond the packing I have to do, my list is a mile long.  Every time I slow down for a minute it seems like life tries to pass me by and I have to take it at a sprint to catch up.  I'm hoping that by working so hard now, I will be able to relax with my family both at my Grandma's house and in Hawaii.  If I want to make this relaxation a possibility I should probably start working on knocking out my list (I don't think sleep is going to be a possibility tonight...).

Here's the basics...I'm excited, I'm ready for change (who thought I would ever say that?!), and I'm full of hope but trying to avoid expectations.  This is a new and fresh beginning for me.  It is the chance for me to discover the person that I want to be.  I cannot wait to discover all that is ahead of me.  Stay tuned for more...

Much Love and Wishes for Happy Holidays!

Anna

PS.  While I'm going on this journey, I'm also excited that my friends are also experiencing the world.  My friend Luke is on quite the adventure right now.  He is in Antarctica learning all kinds of crazy things about global warming and probably taking the most breath taking pictures of all time.  Check out his blog by clicking on his name and look at some of the pictures he took on his way there while in Argentina.  He's quite the talent.