(I feel a song coming on...)
Today is the day I've been staring at on my calendar for a long time now.
If there is one thing I can say about the packing/leaving process, it is that traveling to Europe is not as glamourous, or simple, as it sounds.
I have changed my 'live out of one bag' aspirations the past few weeks into being an absolute hoarder. I've been collecting items that I know I won't find in Spain. Anti-persperant deodorants, specific toothpastes, mixes for cooking, vitamins, and things that are just generally cheaper in the US to save myself some money.
I also worked up quite a sweat last night packing, stepping on suitcases and laying on them to zip them shut. I think I will need some sort of spanish crow bar to open up one of them, it is zipped so tightly, clothes and items ready to explode out of it.
There is going to be a non-glam lifestyle in a lot of what is to come this year for me.
Ups and downs, messes, sadness and tears. I'll miss this room I'm sitting in now, with the familiar all around me. I'll miss being able to hug my family and sit in the living room with them whenever I want to. I'll miss home, there is no doubt in my mind.
But there will be happiness in so much more of what is to come. Whatever happens from this day, September 1st, forward, I will enjoy with an open heart, a huge smile, and satisfaction that I worked so hard to get where I want to be.