Reality check

Remember your first day of college? You know how you had thought about it, looked forward to it and prepared for it mentally for a long time before hand? Do you remember how real it felt to finally start something that up until that point had just been a good idea? I’ve had a few moments like that in my life where the weight of what I had to do—what I knew I would do—started to dawn on me. My first day of college was one (“wow, I’m in college now”) running the Portland Marathon (“so, I’ve actually got to run for four hours now”) was another. My thesis ("in four months I will have written a really long and hopefully good paper") is another example. I know when I step off the plane in Kyiv, I’ll have a similar moment where the gravity of the situation hits me and I think, “ok, this is real now—I actually need to do this.” I’m excited and scared for that moment. Mostly excited! :-)

I was going to blog a running diary of my going away party last night but the truth is I don’t remember much of it, which I’m assuming means it was awesome! One thing I do remember, though, is that my personal breathalyzer came in very handy, both as a party favor and in convincing me that I should go back to bed instead of trying to drive home. It was surreal to say goodbye to everyone, so I decided to head down to Salem and rip this emotional Band-Aid RIGHT OFF by visiting more friends for the last time. I had lunch with Logan and talked with Brian and tried really hard to get a hold of the allusive Rob but was ultimately unsuccessful, sadly. Tonight, I had dinner with Christine and it was wonderful. Pictures of all of this will follow on facebook sometime tomorrow. I leave for D.C. next Wednesday and for Ukraine on the 1st. Wow.