The Final Countdown

Six days left. I can nearly fit my countdown on one hand now. Crazy.

I've slowly been mentioning my time left in Minnesota throughout the summer, but now that it's actually here? I'm kind of freaking out. A good freak out, a very good one. I've come to the point where I've dealt with the doubts, the sadness, the "I don't want to go-s", and the tears. It appears that I have moved on to a great deal of stress now, and the panic of "will my stuff arrive in time?", in addition to "Holy shit. This is happening. And I can't wait." I'm finally excited, FINALLY. I'm so excited that while I don't want to rush my last precious days here in the Midwest, I can't help but want August 14th to come sooner.

It's weird though, leaving home for five months. . . You don't necessarily realize how many things you will be leaving without knowing when you will last have them again. For me, I keep thinking about Aldi's, thrift stores, Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products, Nurture scrub, the silverware in my household and Maggie's dog hair attached to every outfit. I get sad thinking about these little details that I will miss more than I think, but I repeatedly remind myself of all of the new things I will see and buy and experience that may not be something we have back home. I'm excited to share the culture of a new home with my "home back home".

Last night, we packed up the majority of my belongings to send down to Arizona to greet me when I arrive. In the process of packing it, I had realized that while I may have a summer wardrobe appropriate for Minnesota, I do not own enough to last me for the long, hot, heat of the Southwest. I found myself packing long pants and sweatshirts anyways because I couldn't bare deal with their cries of being left home. It's very difficult trying to grasp the weather change. And packing to live there for the next year is much more difficult than packing for a vacation. I can't help myself from thinking about packing sweaters and scarves for the "winter", even though we all know I really won't be needing any of it. After packing up (most of) my stuff, I got kind of sad looking around and seeing my closet so bare and my bed missing it's signature white duvet and instead replaced with an orange floral one. The white-everything-room had been broken. Good things come from this though. For example, I'm about to have the cutest dorm room you ever did see, so keep an eye out for that! As for now, enjoy this picture of me drowning amongst my life stored into boxes.