Getting Here

I ended up packing more than two bags and my backpack; I’m a notorious overpacker. Oh, 

well. I'll still get on the ship.

My life, for the next four months.

Four months ago, I was landing in London, beginning my jaunt around the world. Three months ago, I was drinking sangria in Spain, looming close to my short break from traveling in order to focus on other things. Now, here I am, waiting in DIA, about to take off on an adventure I still can’t fully grasp the magnitude of. Canada awaits. Then Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Cambodia, Viet Nam, China, Japan, Hawai’i, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal, and Cuba. The adventure will come to an abrupt halt in Florida.

It took a while for me to make it here. And I don’t mean that the drive to the airport was long—our flight out of Aspen was cancelled so we had to make the four hour drive to Denver’s airport. It’s chill, though; I finally finished my final essay for my Peter Pan class. I’m now OFFICIALLY off the Block Plan until January. Show me what you’ve got, Semester Plan!

I don't want anything to do with Peter Pan ever again.

I’ve waited for this moment since I was 16 years old, when my sister sailed on the Spring ’08 voyage. I vowed to myself I would someday do this myself, that I would have my own adventure around the world. It wasn’t easy. I started college a semester late. I declared two majors. I wasn’t sure if I would graduate on time. I still applied anyway. I was accepted. I was thrilled. My school was what gave me a hard time. I had to go through an insane petition process in order to receive credit. 17 short essays and a million and one approval signatures later, I turned it in. A month later, I was supposed to get a response. I didn’t. The committee wanted to discuss this matter further. Fast forward another month. It’s March. I’m at the end of my rope. I was beginning to consider Plan B’s. But not really. I knew I HAD to do this, that I had to expand my horizons tenfold. I told my school I would leave, that I would transfer to another school that would accept the credits for transfer. I felt sick to my stomach that I said that, because I love Colorado College, but I knew my college experience wouldn’t be complete without Semester at Sea. I cried that night, thinking that I would have to leave all the people that I have come to love. I built a life from nothing. Apparently, though, that worked. A week later, my petition was accepted. Colorado College said yes. Colorado College said travel. Colorado College said live on the edge. Colorado College said go on your own “unique intellectual adventure” and fulfill our motto we plaster everywhere on campus.

And now I am. And it doesn’t feel quite real. It probably hasn’t hit me fully yet. Maybe when I actually see the ship I’ll feel it.

Next stop: CANADA AND SEMESTER AT SEA!