OMG! It's really happening!

Departure day!!!  I am too excited to sleep!!  I have packed and re-packed and re-packed, making sure everything is as it needs to be.  I don’t think it has fully hit me yet that I will be in Italy within the next 24 hours.  It probably won’t until I walk into the airport. Through the API and Marquette orientations, I have had a lot of opportunity to think about what I want to get out of this trip, and some goals I have, however, I am really going into this trip with a completely open mind and very little expectations. I just want to embrace every experience as it comes, and just enjoy my time there.  My family tells me I am too calm and wonders how I do not seem nervous.  Truth is, I AM nervous—especially for the whole “flying for the first time by myself and internationally thing” and not knowing what to expect—but the excitement outweighs the nervousness/anxiety so that it doesn’t seem so bad.  It makes me a little anxious that I don’t know anyone yet, that I don’t speak the language, and that I’ve never traveled alone before, but hey, ya gotta live and learn!  This trip is going to make me step outside of my comfort zone (for a whole 5 weeks), which is kind of daunting and scary, but I know I will learn so much about myself and it will all be worth it. 

I am taking the bus from Rockford to O’Hare with my dad.  Then I will be checking my luggage, going through security and all that jazz, and then boarding my plane for the 9 hour flight to Roma. I am supposed get there at about 8am their time, get picked up by API staff, check in at my hotel, and start to explore with the other students! 

I'll leave you with two of my favorite quotes:

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."  --Helen Keller

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover." --Mark Twain

Next time I post, I will be doing so from Italia.  Here’s to embarking on the adventure of a lifetime!

Andiamo!