Leaving

I spent today doing two things: getting ready to leave for Uganda tomorrow afternoon, and saying goodbye to my friends and family.

It's clear I've gotten past the giddy excitement of simply knowing I'm going to Uganda. I've now reached a level of sheer terror. This is it. It's really happening. My stuff is really in a suitcase (well, most of it, anyway) and when I say, "See you later" to all of my nearest and dearest, I'm really saying, "See you in December." It is incomprehensible to me that I will be on a plane to Boston in a little more than twenty-four hours.

I don't want to leave my friends. I miss Knox terribly - my live feed on Facebook is filled with statuses of returning students, and I long for the Gizmo, and Seymour Library, and the Quads. I want to go back to living with my best friends, pulling all-nighters to finish papers, and dancing on the weekends.

I'm also reluctant to leave home; my neighbors have very generously opened their house to me, and invited me to join in with their group of friends, all of whom I'll miss greatly while I'm abroad. Leaving home also means leaving my boyfriend, who lives out of state, and who I talk with everyday. I'll be effectively cutting myself off from everyone for nearly four months.

However, I think that, once I've met up with other students in my program, I'll start feeling a little better about this whole excursion. It's the transitioning that will be the most difficult - I very much wish there was at least one person making the entire trip with me. I believe I would be much less apprehensive if that were the case. But, I'll have my computer, my book, and my iPod.  Hopefully, that will keep me entertained, at least until I meet up with some SIT girls in Heathrow on Sunday.

My next post will be from out-of-country - stay tuned!