I leave today.

The anxiousness can finally end and perhaps now I can calm down a bit and relax. I’ve been jittery all week, uneasy. And no it’s not because I’m sad to leave, or nervous even really, people speak English where I’m going and there’s no such thing as a bad question! It’s because I’m excited, naturally, but more so than that it’s the anticipation- you lose your focus. Therefore, this past week has been a complete blur of work, then waiting, then eating, then waiting, then reading, then waiting, and yes sleep at last! That will fight off another 10 hours of waiting time before I leave! In a couple hours, the waiting ends, and well, a whole new type of waiting begins.

In about 48 hours I’ll be in New Zealand. Well kind of… I’ll be getting there around 2:30pm on what will be July 8th there, but still July 7th here. So to avoid confusion, that will only be a little over a day of traveling for me. There’s a 16 hour time difference. But still, in my opinion anything over 5 hours is a long flight. I’m going to be done with airplane life before I even get to California, and that’s the short flight. But airports and planes aren’t all bad. It gives you time to get all those habits out of the way before you land somewhere so surreal that you aren’t going to want to play candy crush on your phone anymore, or skim through the latest People magazine. Plane rides gives you time to prepare. I’ll finally be pulling out that New Zealand Guide book my parents got me and breaking out the post-it notes because ideally, I would do everything in that book, but sometimes we have to pick and choose our paths. Endlessly looking through the options though, that’s what I’m looking forward to. And having all these options to choose from, that’s what I am blessed with.

I can’t wait to arrive in Auckland, though I will savor the time before I get there, because once anticipation fades, all one has is the moment. My moment may be 5 months long, but something tells me that still won’t be long enough.

See you on the other side America!