Finally leaving

All of those months of prep work, a month at home living like today would never come, and part of me is wishing I could forever live in that beautiful limbo. But finally I am here, just me and me: one girl, one bag, one year and endless possibilites. Leaving is always so hard. This is by far the most diffiuclt it has ever been. No person waiting joyfully for me at the other end of my journey, no one putting months into showing me their world. Just me, a world full of people back home who miss me intensley and a heart and head full of questions that I hope this time will answer. I just have to keep telling myself that all the sadness I caused at leaving will be drowned out on my return and that I will be the better for having taken this trip. I know I will be forever changed and that this is a journey my soul needs to take -- my body just has to come along for the ride. I keep faith that as my pack grows lighter with the casting off of worn out clothes and old shampoo bottles so will my soul as it throws away unnecessary burdens and decisions become clearer, more concise. I'll be casting off emotional burdens I've been carting around for far too long. This trip will be a course in taking my own advice: that no person should be given the power to take my joy, that life is better lived learning from mistakes rather than living in regreats, and that at the end of the day my life is about the choices I make. My soul will be renewed, my body beaten and tired, but at the end of the day it will be mine and I will be happy to live in it.