A Memory Turned Opportunity

Well i'm sitting here writing this, half packed for Germany, not started on any of my college applications, and procrastinating my online classes. Despite all of this, I have never felt more ready. It's hard to believe that I’ll be stepping off a plane in Germany in four days. Getting the initial call that I was accepted, jumping and crying in the school hallway, I never thought that it would come so fast. Since writing last I have learned a bit more German and been given a host family! Although no family is perfect, Experiment did a wonderful job of picking out the perfect family for me. I will be living with host parents, a six year old host sister, a 23 year old aupair, two dogs, and a cat!

I've been trying to get a few bucket list items completed in my last few days in America and although the zoo wasn't one of them, I spent my day running from exhibit to exhibit. Then, after walking the park more than a dozen times (yes, I am sore), I picked up some cookout on the way home, the last cookout I’ll eat for a year.  People continue asking me what i’m going to miss about America. When I think about missing my hometown, I don't think about the places and things that make it what it is, I think about the moments I've come accustomed to. I thought about how I'm going to miss getting a cookout tray on my way home from school, how I’ll miss going out to the movies with my sisters, how I’ll miss driving my car, how I’ll miss lip syncing songs with my friends, and so much more. But I realized that with everything I’ll miss about my home, there's something new for me to explore in Germany. The cookout tray will turn into a döner that i've been hearing so much about. Going out to the movies with my sisters will be me going to the animal shelter with my host sister. Public transportation will be my new car and lip syncing with my friends will be replaced by new memories and new friends! It's possible during these last few days before I depart to Germany to dwell on everything that I will be missing. But, it’s even easier to imagine all of the possibilities that await me in Germany.