Campus Conversations

Pushing Off: Let's Get this Semester Started!

March 23, 2012

Blogger: Miranda Sieg

Hey gang, apologies for the length between posts. To reiterate and for those of you newly joining me, I am still on Winter Break! I'm technically studying abroad this semester, but I haven't actually left yet.

But my wait is (mostly) over! I will be leaving for Japan on April 5th, arriving late April 6th... and now I'm freaking out.

Is this trip to study in Japan the fulfillment of a childhood dream? Yes. Is it going to be super-awesome? Yes. Will I look back on it with fondness and longing for the rest of my life? Yes. Am I ready to go? Absolutely not.

I mean, I am ready, mostly. I have my visa, all my paperwork is in order, I know who my home stay family is and they seem nice, but, I'm just not, mentally prepared. I often have a moment of utter terror before a big trip and this is no different. I spent the night before flying to LA for orientation sitting in my bed and thinking about how to break the news to my parents that I wouldn't, in fact, be attending college next year and preferred instead to hide under my covers for the foreseeable future.

That didn't happen of course. I went to sleep and woke up the next day mostly under control.

I know a lot of things pushed me in that direction (out of bed), first among them that I really did, actually, want to go to college, Oxy, specifically. But I also reminded myself that a) staying at home would be wasting everything I'd done previously, suffering through high school, taking four-thousand-bajillion tests and tweaking and rewriting my essay even more, b) all of the people I wanted to stay behind to be with would be leaving too, and c) this opportunity wasn't (isn't) something that comes along too often, so you have to jump on it when it's available. That and, come on, my parents would legit kill me.

So, I'll tell myself the same thing this time. The more nervous I am for something, the more likely it is to be super-wicked-nasty-mega-awesome-freakin'-foxy-fantabulous, and there is no way, no way, I am going to miss it.

 Good luck with the rest of your senior year and with college decisions! And have a great summer. You'll remember it fondly for the rest of your life so do something awesome!