Pre-departure Musings

 When I first decided I wanted to study abroad I was eleven years old.  Why would an eleven-year-old want to think about college when she should be dreaming about princesses and knights on white horses? Well, these things certainly entertained my thoughts, but what I thought most about was the envied lives of my favorite authors and poets.

At an early age I became fascinated with Geoffrey Chaucer, Lewis Carroll, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and the Bronte sisters. I always thought that if I traveled to the United Kingdom, I would experience a small glimpse of the life of some of my favorite people. Maybe I could be inspired like they were by the current London? Regardless of my many, changing reasons for wanting to study in a foreign country, the United Kingdom specifically, my goal was set. And ten years later, I will have set my feet on the soil I have pondered for so long. I wonder if eleven-year-old me would be surprised?

This trip was made accessible to me when I transferred to Central Michigan University. I sought out the study abroad office, and now it is finally happening. I really can’t believe it. Wow, just wow. I think this trip was meant for me because I hardly had to do any work! I just asked a few people the right questions and BAM! There it was, a picture-perfect opportunity, which eleven-year-old me would have never even believed was possible.

I’ll be sorry to kiss my friends and family good-bye for three months, but I am anticipating full support on this incredible journey. I certainly don’t want to do it alone, and to everyone who is hundred of miles (and kilometers) away, I want you there with me. Moments are meant to be shared, so I promise to share my journey, but I don’t want to miss what’s happening in the world around me either.

I am so incredibly excited for England, for Kingston, and for everything new. In fact, I’m so excited that, four months away from traveling, I am already preoccupied by “What am I going to wear??”