Today's the Day!

This is it. Today is the day that I leave behind my beautiful Minnesota summer to head for the country of Mongolia for 3.5 months of study. Today is the day that months of planning, applications, and anticipation finally come to fruition. I'm thrilled. I'm also terrified. It was easy to commit to spending almost 1/3 of the year halfway around the world when it was still a rather abstract concept and months away from reality. Time has a way of sneaking up on a person, and it has finally hit me in the last week or so that I am about to launch myself into something very real and quite extreme. With one suitcase and a sleeping bag, I will be living in a completely different culture on the other side of the globe. I do not know any of the other 10 students who will be doing the program (SIT's Mongolia: Culture and Development) with me. We come from all across the country and have never met. I will be spending part of my time in Mongolia staying with two different native host families, about whom I know absolutely nothing. Far away from family and home or even the means of contacting friends and loved ones, I will be out on my own in a more profound way than ever before. And really, that is the point. Only when I confront my fears and push myself to the brink of what I imagine my capabilities to be can I ever hope to forge myself into the kind of person I hope to be when I grow up "for real." Wish me luck!