Greetings! Welcome to my very first post of my very first blog! Wow! OK, done marveling for a moment....
So, seeing as I am leaving America to go teach English, I thought the alphabet would be a good theme for my posts. As I sit here, at the San Francisco airport, I can't help but be nervous, scared, happy, excited, tired, full, and generally overwhelmed at the idea that everything I will start my new life out with fits into 2 suitcases of 50 lbs each, a backpack (quilt and pillow strapped on), and a laptop case full of everything that is my lifeline to sanity at the moment.
I have done the passport, visa, and farewell portion of my travels and now I find myself in a bit of limbo. I'm in an American airport--that's familiar--but I'm sitting in the International departures section. I hear announcements in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. I'm here, in a blend of my old world and my new one, thinking that this is perhaps the most fitting waiting area; a place halfway between my former home and my home that is yet to be. As I sit here I think that the strangest part of it all is that I don't even know my new address in Pohang, South Korea: the place I will spend the next 12 months of my life.
I'm a little scared that I will get lost along the way somewhere but more comforted that I will find friends wherever I go. I have never failed to find friends in the past, and this is no different. Just a different location on the globe, a different language, and a new way of thinking to learn about. I'm also sad to leave the amazing people I know behind me physically (though never behind in spirit), and happy to be moving toward the meeting of other amazing people. I'm very excited to be teaching English to little kids. (I bet they will all steal my heart!) Having a job feels really good after graduating from college, like my world is back in balance.
There's also a dream-like quality to this.... Leaving for a new country, never having been outside my own country before, not knowing the language, and not really knowing anyone in the place I am going. It feels a bit surreal, but good all at once. It is, after all, the fulfillment of two of my dreams, going abroad and teaching, so perhaps that has added to the overwhelming feel of joy and terror that are under all the other emotions. Joy for the obvious reasons, and terror because there is nothing in life so scary as success and brilliant achievement. One of my favorite quotes is about that... "Our greatest fear is not that we will fail, our greatest fear is that we are beautiful and powerful beyond belief...." or something to that effect. I will get the specific quote and author posted ASAP.
Well, thanks for reading my first of hopefully many posts. I look forward to my travels and experiences, and sharing them with you. Be well and enjoy your own adventure every day!
I am so proud of you. You will conquer the world, if that is what it takes...May God Bless you, and keep you safe, is this wondrous journey that you are taking!!!
ReplyDeleteG-girl
Thanks to my sister for looking up that quote I was talking about. Here it is.
ReplyDeleteOur deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. -Marianne Williamson