Preparing to Leave

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page"- Saint Augustine
The quote that starts this page was used during our Education Abroad Orientation.
Before this day, studying abroad was an idea.

For me, it never seemed that this kind of adventure was obtainable. I was used to friends coming home from vacation, tanned from a tropical sun I never felt, sharing picture of places I never saw and retelling stories of culture I could not understand. I imitated their smiles wanting to share their excitement. But my eyes did not light up, flash with the freshness of new sights as theirs did, for I could never fully grasp their experience. I would have to make my own.

Upon starting the application process, I felt as if I was asking for something unobtainable. When people asked me where I planned to go, I answered "Denmark!" the way a starry-eyed third grader tells you they're going to Stanford. It was a dream. It was unrealistic for someone like me who had never even traveled to the east coast of my country.

But scanned document by registration form, bank transfers by conformations, page by page and little by little the path began to clear. And one day I got an email confirming my plane ticket. I was going.

That day at orientation, I saw others around me wanting to improve their college experience, to see what else the world has to offer, and learn about another culture. The gleam in their eyes was not of experience but of a contagious excitement for life. How could I not catch the bug?

I caught it bad. Excitement, anticipation and anxiety fester like a fever as the day to departure draws closer. I ask myself, how do I prepare?
Perhaps the wisest words are that I simply can't. There will be situations in which I won't know what to do, but discovering the solution is part of the adventure.

I've learned a thing or two from Indiana Jones, I should be fine.

This song has grounded me in the last couple days: Kong by Bonobo: