Gratitude

Mixed emotions right now.

I'm really excited because I LOVE Christmas. I'm pretty much done shopping and wrapping already and we haven't even put our tree up.

I leave next. month.

It really hasn't set in, which is normal for me. What I'm doing won't really set in until I'm alone for the first time in a new place, probably right before I go to sleep the first night in Africa. That time is always the hardest. I'm sure I'll have plenty to occupy my mind all day, but that time right before bed...I'm not looking forward to it, especially since this time I'm leaving a boyfriend behind.

I'm nervous about everything.

Teaching, where I'll live, getting my visa and residence permit, meeting people, speaking the language, how to dress, how my body will handle the heat, finding my way in a new city, different cultural expectations. Every. single. thing about the life I'm heading to in a month will be different. Everything. In an anthropology class I took we were studying different cultural expectations around the world; one end of the scale was America, the other end was Africa.

This is going to be hard.

But as Siri Karm (a friend, sikh, and president of the Boston Language Institute) said last Friday night, it is best to approach every challenge in life with gratitude. In the end, when I overcome this challenge, I know I'll be a better person.