Well surprisingly enough I actually finished packing two days early, rather than my usual 10 minutes after I already should have left, so that weight has been lifted. Speaking of weight however, I'm sure I'm not even close to the 50 pound limit,which means that right off the bat I'm out at least $250. But all things considered, that's a small price to pay for all the globetrotting I'm going to be doing in the next few days. First stop: Iceland, then onto a quick layover in Paris before Munich - where I'll be eating as much pretzels and pork as humanly possible - and finally back to Paris to somehow find my way to Louviers.
While I find myself oscillating between excitement and nausea, I don't think the magnitude of what I'm about to do will hit me until I get on the plane. Yesterday, I was in Philadelphia with my cousin (who is also teaching in France) and while we were eating our last cheesesteak for a while at Reading Terminal Market, it hit me that we're not those two little kids anymore with the same missing front tooth, beaming in our Easter gear. We're all grown up, about to do grown-up things.
For the past 21 years I've had an incredible life; one where I've accomplished more than I ever would have thought possible. But with this year I hope to achieve and experience even more. One of the main reasons that I wanted to do this program - beyond the fact that I get to live in France for a year - was to force myself to step out of my comfort zone and try new things, because over the years I've learned (and unfortunately have not always exercised) that nothing is worse than missing an opportunity that could have changed your life.
As a result, I'm going to put some faith in the wisdom of Mark Twain who said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
On y va!
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