Anxious

Three days until I leave for Leuven, and I am reallllly anxious about the whole thing. I have been packing for quite awhile now and preparing for the trip, so now I'm basically just sitting here ready to go. Most of my friends have already left for school...sigh. I feel like everybody always leaves before I do for school. Oh well. I think I'm just nervous because I honestly don't really know what to expect. Everybody says that your study abroad experience is the 'best time of your life', which I truly believe, but people also caution you as to the homesickness that is a part of studying abroad. I have never really been afraid of change for as long as I can remember, but when it comes to this whole adventure I'm about to embark on, I have to admit that I'm hesitant. For some reason I just feel as though I'll be missing things (not at Loyola!), but at home. However, when you go away to college, change happens without you, whether you like it or not. I think Leuven is really going to be awesome, but I think I'm just getting the jitters, which is natural.

Looking on the bright side, next year is going to be a year for me to get to know myself better, and will, without a doubt, be a year of new beginnings for me. I have not had a satisfactory college experience so far, and I am hoping that Leuven makes up for the other three years. However, no matter what happens, I know that it will be the biggest learning experience of my life; it will expose me to so much. I think I definately need a change of pace after the last two years. I was restless and unhappy at Loyola, which is part of the reason that I chose Leuven. Transferring and studying abroad for a good length of time just wasn't an option for me, so I chose to stay at Loyola, in order to fulfill my dream, which has always been to study abroad and see the world. I think this road I'm going down is definately for a reason.

I'm sure that there will be challenging moments involved with this whole excursion, but there will also be great times that I will never forget. Studying abroad is definately an opportunity that I am grateful for. I do not that that too many people get to experience studying abroad, much less a whole year abroad. I think that I definately need to take advantage of what is ahead of me, because it is the opportunity of a lifetime.