3 days to go... Goodbye, US!

3 days until I leave for LA, 4 days until I leave for Pago Pago. Currently, I’m vacillating between being incredibly, incredibly excited and incredibly, incredibly terrified. Of course I’ve known for months now that I’d be spending the next year on a tiny tropical island in the South Pacific… but there were other things to focus on first: finals, then Senior Week, Graduation, the GREs, camp, Chicago… Now, suddenly, all the “first”s are gone, and the next step is American Samoa. For a year. Where I will be teaching high school science. Um. What?

This is what I always wanted, and always planned on: taking some time after college to travel, to do something I probably won’t get the opportunity to do later on, to live somewhere new, experience a real challenge beyond anything I’ve ever faced before. It’s just coming kind of fast now. And this is always the part of traveling I hate: packing, saying goodbye, worrying about flights and hotels and travel times, and a ton of waiting around. I just want to get there now!

The last weekend I got to go to Chicago with two of my best friends (pics included, most stolen from Gann), and it was amazing. It gave me the opportunity to say some very important goodbyes: to people, yes, but also to other things, both tangible and not. I said goodbye to city streets and skyscrapers, greasy hot dogs/McDonalds/pizza at 3am, iced coffee, bars, clubs, restaurants, and baseball games, among other things. All of these are things that I will miss next year, but none of them are things I can’t live without, and I think I have to keep reminding myself that. A year is a long time, but it’s a short time, too... I’ll be back on the city streets soon enough, and don’t worry: no matter where I end up next year, I’ll be hitting up Boston, New York, Miami, and Minneapolis (among other places) ASAP. But first, I’m going to spend an amazing year in American Samoa, teaching, learning, snorkeling, and spear fishing (maybe??).

My last day in Boston, the day after graduation, I went to The Fairy Shop (because how can you possibly be on Newbury Street without stopping by The Fairy Shop?!?) and found a necklace that says, “Wherever you go, go with all your heart”. That’s something I’m going to try to keep close to me this next year.

The next time I post… it will be from half-way around the world!!! Love you all and miss you already!