I woke up this morning (Wait, I went to sleep last night?!) and realized that my next awakening would be in a hotel room in Rome, half a world away. This idea baffles me. Not the hotel or anything like that: half a world away. Sometimes, it feels like there is no land beyond the shores of my homeland. I think it's just that I've never been challenged enough to think globally before. I mean, sure, I took geography and learned the capitols of countries that I will never remember exist, but I mean truly globally--the realization that other countries truly exist; they are solid, and I can touch them.
On the car ride to the airport, I sat in the backseat with my sister. "You're going to ITALY!!" she said to me with her face stretched in an excited smile. I couldn't contain mine and let out a long squeal like the pig in the Geico commercial. Sometimes I wonder when I will act like an adult. Then I walked through security, and waved goodbye to my family. I walked on, alone, and realized that I should probably get on that whole 'adult' idea pretty soon if I wanted to survive one day alone in a foreign country. 95% of the time when I have gotten on an airplane, I have landed in Arizona, where my heart belongs. It's strange to think that this time, I will be landing in a different sort of heat: a tanned, European sun that doesn't speak the English that I know.
When I think about travelling far away, I get really excited. Super-duper excited, as I've been saying when people ask. The past few days, I have been a busy-body trying to prepare my belongings and my mental self for the journey that is ahead. Despite my best attempts at overcoming some last-minute strep two days before my flight, I have arrived at the airport after saying "ciao" to everyone that I love. As I sit here looking around, there is no one at this gate who looks near as excited as I am. I can't rid my face of a smile, but everyone else just looks bored, disinterested. Sometimes I forget that I am very-much-so a small-town girl, and that people travel on 10hr. flights to foreign lands everyday. Where have I been?
The past few days, I have had to tell myself in my mind that I am not about to take my first (of, hopefully, many) once-in-a-lifetime journeys. It makes the time continue to pass at a reasonable rate. If I think about what I am doing and where I am going, the clock stops, and my clammy hands wringle knots of my fingers as my mind contemplates the scenarios that everyone has been warning me about. The funny thing is: first, my family and friends would say, "Oh! Italy! You are going to fall in love with an Italian boy and bring him back/come home with him/ never come home!"; then, "You better be careful, and don't trust everyone, and don't walk on streets alone, and don't talk to boys, and always stay with a group!!"; and finally, "You are going to have a such a nice time! It's going to be great!" Can I opt for cautious fun? I'll take the first and last and work on a few things in the middle, please. No, no, that completes my order. (:
Just keep breathing, and don't think too much because then you worry too much. (That's not just a note-to-self; it goes for you too, Mom!)
The countdown is over. Thank God!!
Blessings.
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