Leaving home

Leaving home… [Im at MIT now, but wrote this entry earlier today while still travelling.] For months, Ive been looking forward to the day Id be leaving for college. I talk to my future classmates daily, and it seems like something of a college preparatory nature occurs multiple times per week. For seven months, the notion of a new life and future along the Charles River has been firmly planted in the back of my mind. But sometimes, when you spend too much time looking forward, you dont spend enough time considering the past. And as I type this from an aisle seat on a flight bound for Atlanta (where Ill connect to my Boston flight), the fact that I wont be seeing the same friends, family, bedroom, furniture, and kitchen table on a daily basis is really starting to sink in. Its not that Im not ready to be leaving home; goodness, Ive had two and a half years to prepare for that. But I suppose you could say that in all of the eagerness to get the hell out of the desert, I lost sight of the foundation and support structure that one takes for granted living in the same area for eighteen years. I spent the last couple weeks seeing old friends and actually giving extra thought to the chores I brand routine: going to the post office, driving past my old school, seeing my dad at work, getting my favorite takeout food. Driving to the airport this morning (a three-hour affair), it wasnt with excitement that I hit the highway for the very last time as a true local. Well, to be honest, I felt a bit sentimental and nostalgic. I was leaving behind the place where I first learned to read, speak, walk, share, eat, sleep the place where I first cried and where I first skinned my knees on a playground. Yes, to be downright honest, it was nothing short of dizzying. Luckily, Im fairly resilient. I snapped out of pondering in a couple of minutes and quickly devoted my energy to taking a nap one well-deserved after a long night of packing. I also IMed some people Ill be seeing tonight at East Campus. So you see, theres nothing wrong with change. Just make sure you take ample time to appreciate what youre leaving behind. :-) Ill be updating you this coming week on orientation activities as well as introducing you to some of my friends, and to the hall on which Im temporarily staying, Third East.