Last Day Before We Finally Leave

Tomorrow’s the day we finally leave to take on Chicago. I’ve been so anxious to leave ever since the night of the interviews, and I don’t think I’ll be able to relax until we finally get on the plane. There have been so many hours put in by everyone involved to make this experience possible. All of the challenges I have faced, from the ILC application to the interviews to the UChicago application, are now behind me and it’s time to actually do this.

I spent a lot of today packing. I travel a lot, so packing is a process that’s pretty familiar to me, but I was so nervous that I would forget something that it took me around 2 hours to finish. Every time I thought I was done, I would remember something that I forgot to put on my list and spend way too much time debating whether or not it was important enough to justify the space it took up in my luggage. For this reason, packing was really frustrating, so when I finally finished I felt very satisfied. 

Packing before the big day took a while.

I’ve been kind of living by myself the past couple of days since I’ve gotten back from Singapore because my dad has been working and my mom and brothers are still overseas, but I haven’t spent much time alone in the house because I’ve been out with friends every day, enjoying San Francisco before I leave, until now.

I've been spending a lot of time in the city.

Today, after I finished packing, I finally had some time to relax and just reflect on all of the events that have brought me to this point. I realized that there have been so many opportunities for failure on this journey, whether it be the initial submission of our essays to Don or the completion of all of the UChicago health forms, and for the first time since this preparation has started I felt proud of myself for making it here. Of course, the actual adventure has yet to start, but even earning the right to board tomorrow’s flight is a huge honor. I’m still nervous, and probably still will be until we’re actually on our way, but I’m also more excited than ever.