-Albus Dumbledore
It is hard to believe that five weeks from today I will be arriving in Sete Lagoas, Brazil, my new home for the next year of my life. It is another example of how quickly time seems to pass these days. I graduated from high school a month ago--a milestone I have yet to fully appreciate--and a month from now I will be preparing for an even greater, life-altering experience. If graduation had seemed years away whilst sitting in my second-hour calculus class, my departure to Brazil certainly seemed a lifetime. I am now faced with the strange reality of having to meet the latter in a relatively short amount of time, and by relatively I mean a very, very short amount of time.
I still haven't completely grasped the concept of leaving for a year. I signed into the Rotary Youth Exchange program quickly and completely eight months ago, without so much as a second thought. I was doing Rotary. That was that. My mind had been made up the previous year, and I wasn't going to change it after that. While I have certainly thought about how great it would have been to go to college with my friends, I have not truly doubted my decision to postpone college in exchange for a year abroad. However, that is not to say that I haven't been anxiously anticipating my departure to Brazil, or believe it will be an easy transition to make. To be perfectly honest, I am terrified--but, where would be the fun if I wasn't a little scared? It would be far worse if I wasn't a little freaked out, instead thinking it would be a consistently happy and easy year. Once again I reiterate, where would be the fun in that? It's the challenge of overcoming my fear that will make this journey all the more exciting...I think.
It's hard to contemplate everything right now, and it's difficult to find a way to put all of these contemplations into coherent sentences. Not to mention I am trying to make this blog interesting for you, my dear reader. So, with that, I will wrap up this first entry. Thank you for reading, and I hope to keep you updated on my adventures every (other) step of the way.
Tchau e beijos.
