Ya me voy!

January 24, 14

“Are you ready?”

“Getting excited?”

“Nervous, I bet?”

            It’s difficult to tell when polite conversation inquiries spill over to genuine interest.  I’ve been giving the normal responses – “Well, I haven’t packed yet…Sure I’m excited…Nah, it’ll be fine.” Fine? Fine is the sort of dismissive language we absent-mindedly toss around to get someone to stop nagging with the equally brain-dead polite questioning, but as I strap on my hiking boots that can’t fit in my packed bags, I’ve got to wonder, “Is ‘fine’ all I’m really expecting?

"Travel Light, Travel Quick!

            I’ve had several days like today in my recent past – the last day at home, or in America for that matter.  Seven months ago or so, I repeated the same exercise of last minute cancelling monthly online subscriptions, and stuffing little knick-knacks into visibly overstuffed luggage.  Today, I head out on a four-month trip to Costa Rica to study, among other things, Spanish, Costa Rican History, and Tropical Rainforest Ecology.  It’s a trip I’ve planned to take since the fall of 2011, something I highlight when giving college admission tours, and an all-too-recurrent topic of conversation at family gatherings.  Yet, I’ve honestly never toyed with my “pre-departure reflections and thoughts to how-serious-is-this-trip” ratio so much, tipping the scales to devoting almost no critical analysis to the imminent journey. 

            Although I’ve had ample time to “psych myself out” this winter break, I’ve filled the free space with a myriad of odd and unpleasant activities, such as an unexpectedly difficult tonsillectomy and days of scholarship applications.  In addition, I’ve decompressed from a difficult semester with a trip to Los Angeles and Santa Cruz just to see the people I love.  Of course, all along the way I’ve been asked the same half-dozen study abroad inquiries about my preparedness, excitement, anxiety, ect.

            As I lace up my hiking boots over my orange-tiger-stripped socks (can’t leave the country without some orange clothing, right?  I also have a bow tie!), I believe it’s finally hit me that in 24 hours I’ll be in somewhat of a different world.  I’ll be speaking, reading, and thinking in Spanish, adjusting to living with a family of 5 (ages, 12, 40s, and 70s), and coming to terms with the fact that I’ll actually have to go back to doing academic work.  Looking back on my date of departure for Ghana, however, I can say I’m in a similar place, although a bit harrier (no shaved head this go around!)

           

“Who knows if I’m ready, I’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Excited?  That’s an unfair question; I have no honest idea of what lies ahead.”

“No, not nervous; an adventure awaits, and the unknown will be what I make of it.”

I’ll update you with a decently interesting chronicle of my travels in the coming week, but for now, all I can say for sure is that, like I left for Ghana in May, I’m thrilled to put a foot forward and step into the unknown.

There seems to be a pattern...