Hello, world! The time is officially here; Diana and I have finally begun our travels to Dublin for the semester! As I am writing this, I am sitting at my gate in the Boston Airport. It has been a long process to get here, and we still have quite the travel day ahead of us, but none the less we are extremely excited.
It’s funny because everyone keeps asking me how I’m feeling - if I’m excited for the next four months. And, of course I am excited - but a more accurate word to describe the feelings I’m having right now is: surreal. Everything feels surreal. It seems like just yesterday Diana and I were running around the col-da-sac as little kids back in Maine, dreaming of the day when we would be able to travel the world together.
Back then , I didn’t know where I would go to college or what my life would look like. Fast forward a handful of years and I’ve found myself 800 miles away from home at school in North Carolina, while Diana is 600 miles away from me at school in Massachusetts. Our parents never even entertained the idea that we would go to the same college, it was fairly unrealistic. We’ve learned to live apart from each other, but it never gets any less sad to say goodbye. When we said we wanted to study abroad together to spend a semester together, our parents sort of laughed. “Good luck figuring that out between two schools, don’t get your hopes up!” They said. And to that, we said challenge accepted.
So here we are, sitting at our gate in the Boston airport about to take off for this new adventure together, and it just doesn’t seem real. I’ve watched so many of my friends go abroad during the past fall semester, and while I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me excited to go experience it for myself, it also made my experience feel very far away. Something out there in the distance. For so long, going abroad to me felt like a dream I would one day live — but not anytime soon.
And boy was I wrong. This day snuck up on me faster than I ever thought. Even with all the packing dilemmas, fitting everything into each suitcase meticulously and carefully as to not tip the weight too much. I weighed, all of my suitcases about 100 more times after that to make sure they were in the very strict (and annoying) flight weight regulations. And I’m happy to report, both Diana and I passed the security checkpoint with flying colors… it only took two weeks of packing and weeding out half of our wardrobes.
As I write this, I’m getting more and more excited to get on this plane and start the journey. It doesn’t feel real quite yet, but it does feel exciting. And adventurous. And new. I’m readily waiting for this new challenge, and eagerly imagining what our new lives might be like.
For now, I’m going to get myself together and get ready to board the plane. They just announced the beginning of our boarding process! I’ll check in with all of you from across the pond. And until then, Diana and I will be snoozing (hopefully) and dreaming of all the Guinness we will be drinking in the next four months. Cheers to 2020 :)