As 48 hours have ebbed away, my belongings have somehow managed to cram themselves into two suitcases. Vacuuming the excess air out of Space Bags, my mom, my sister, and I watched gleefully as my parka and Snuggie shrank to resemble a gargantuan package of deli meat.
At this point, I'm trying to accept that I am a compulsive over-packer and, also, that I won't be home until mid-December. The idea isn't new to me; I've watched my friends leave for college this past summer, one by one. From them, I've learned no matter how much you anxiety-pack, no matter how many Luna bars or bottles of Purell you buy, you can't mentally prepare for the experience. It's just too big, too overwhelming, and too full of the unknown.
The unknown is not always a good thing. In kindergarden, a classmate of mine stapled his finger "to see what it felt like." Needless to say, he didn't like the result. Yet he faced the decision with straightforwardness and anticipation. I can only hope I regard the upcoming nine months with the same mindset and return without punctured fingers.
(Tomorrow I actually leave for Israel, so thereafter this blog will no longer focus on The Big Lebowski and packaged deli meat).
Rebecca Abbott
(Kivunim - www.kivunim.org) - a gap year before Barnard
At this point, I'm trying to accept that I am a compulsive over-packer and, also, that I won't be home until mid-December. The idea isn't new to me; I've watched my friends leave for college this past summer, one by one. From them, I've learned no matter how much you anxiety-pack, no matter how many Luna bars or bottles of Purell you buy, you can't mentally prepare for the experience. It's just too big, too overwhelming, and too full of the unknown.The unknown is not always a good thing. In kindergarden, a classmate of mine stapled his finger "to see what it felt like." Needless to say, he didn't like the result. Yet he faced the decision with straightforwardness and anticipation. I can only hope I regard the upcoming nine months with the same mindset and return without punctured fingers.
(Tomorrow I actually leave for Israel, so thereafter this blog will no longer focus on The Big Lebowski and packaged deli meat).
Rebecca Abbott
(Kivunim - www.kivunim.org) - a gap year before Barnard
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