3 days!!

I can't believe I'm leaving for the Bahamas in 3 days! I've been doing things to get ready for this trip for almost a year and it's finally here! I wish I could just skip over the next few days, have someone finish my packing for me, and just have it be Saturday morning. As excited as I am, I'm also really anxious because I know I still have a lot to do. But, underneath all the stress and anxiety, I've never been more excited for ANYTHING. Not only do I know this will be an amazing experience, but it also feels like really good timing to get away from everything and meet some new people. I need a change and this trip could not be coming at a better time. People keep telling me this is the best thing I'll ever do and I can't believe it's about to start!!



3 Things I've Learned While Preparing For This Trip:
1. Don't sell yourself short - If you don't like the way something is, you should probably change it and if you don't think you deserve to be treated a certain way, you probably don't. It's easy right now to think "I'm about to leave, I want to fix things" or "I'm about to leave, I really miss so-and-so, I should probably hang out with them" or "I'm about to leave, I don't even care anymore." I've been saying those things for a couple months and now that I really am about to leave, it makes me think what if I wasn't? The idea of "leaving" shouldn't be what causes you to do things that should have been done awhile ago. You should do what feels right to you regardless of whether you are staying, going, whatever.
2. Don't sell your friends short - I spent a lot of time this past semester thinking there wasn't anyone who really "got" me, and counting down the days till I could leave for this trip and meet people who would "understand" me. Come the end of the semester, I'm sitting in Starbucks for 2 hours with a friend just talking and realizing we have way more in common than I used to think, or having an hour long conversation with friends about Namibian amphibians and being those loud people laughing in a restaurant. Don't get so wrapped up in yourself and whatever you've got going on that you fail to realize there are probably wayyyy more people who know you and get you and love you than you think.
3. Sometimes things actually DO happen for a reason - I was always a little bitter that I got into an ivy league school and wasn't allowed to go because of money. I didn't understand why if I worked hard enough to deserve admission, my parents couldn't just somehow make it work out. Then in the middle of my 2nd semester, I came across this program, which is uhhh a little pricey, to say the least. Between using my scholarship money from Temple, and my parents paying more than they usually do for school as a sort of gift, and me taking a small loan from them, we can make it work because of money and I'm about to have the most amazing experience ever. If I had gone to Penn, I would NEVER have been able to afford this trip. I'd bet money that in the long run, Semester at Sea will impact me much more, will leave a much deeper impression on my personality, and will all-around serve me better than an ivy league education. Harder classes and great professors really don't compare to LITERALLY getting to see the world, at least not in my mind. Once I started planning this trip, I realized that choosing the college I did really worked out in my favor.

I CAN'T WAIT TO LEAVE!