The countdown begins...

I've started packing. Silly thing to do when I know tomorrow I will merely rummage through the neatly folded shirts to find something to wear. All that work will have been for nothing.

How exactly does one pack for a semester in two bags? It is only when you attempt this incredible feat do you realize how many things we accumulate in our lives and how much we "need" to live comfortably.

It is a little over a week before I board a plane, alone, and travel to country I've never been to before to live with four other girls I've never met for almost four months. I suppose I should be paralyzed with fear at the mere prospect of this, but I'm not. There is plenty of time for paralyzing fear when I board the plane for the long ride from Knoxville to the Heathrow airport. Right now, I'm just anxious and overwhelmed--anxious to begin a journey that I've dreamed about all of my life, and overwhelmed with everything that still needs to be done before I leave.

I know; I am being slightly melodramatic. It is only a semester afterall, and people travel all the time. It just feels as though for my whole life I have been watching the world from the sidelines, and now...well, now, it is my turn.