The Beginning

I.

Leaving wasn't easy. There were some obvious reasons. The only child leaving the safety of life at home, the girl leaving the boy behind. And there were reasons I didn't expect and couldn't identify.

I brought a leather-bound journal with me. It has that oh-so-sophisticated leather string to hold the front flap closed, and four folds of yellowish paper held together by string. I have intentions for this journal, dreams of making it fat with taped-in ticket stubs and letting it be stained with tea and worn with life, toted from park to café, woods to shore.

This is an excerpt from my first entry:


September 4, 2007

My dad said I'm lucky in life.
I got the airport wrong and we had to make a mad dash to Dulles about 45 minutes earlier than we had expected to leave. No traffic, 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon. Lucky.
When we arrived, there was no line to check in. Both bags came in under 50 pounds and the security line was virtually nonexistant. Lucky.
I waded through the Euro kids and families and businessmen, heart pounding and tears drowning my eyes.
I kept thinking, People do this all the time. But don't they have parents? Boyfriends and girlfriends? People to miss and cry over in the airport?
I was the only person I saw crying. I couldn't stop the whole way to the gate.
What am I afraid of? I don't rally know. Yes, this is huge, but it's so amazing, and I truly am lucky to have the chance to do this. I'm lucky to have a mom who tells me she's proud of me just before I have to walk away. Lucky to have the ability to come right back home, and lucky to have people there who would be happy either way. And lucky to have such a beautiful friend waiting for me at my next stop.
I am a very lucky girl. There is no doubt.

II.

The first flight ended up going by quickly. Just a hop down to Atlanta, where I would meet up with Liz. Celebratory margaritas and mojitos were savored in the last TGIFriday's we'd be seeing in a long time (or so we thought...shocker!) On the flight we were blessed with an empty seat between us, meaning more stretching out room for the 11 hours of flight time we would endure.

(Click here to see our first video.)

And what did we learn in our time of confinement?

As cute as the novelty of Harry Potter Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans may be, going through and eating them one by one is not as fun a game as it may sound. If you choose to ignore that warning, at least make sure not to eat "pickle" and "dirt" back to back, because it really does taste like you just ate a really dirty pickle.

III.

The Buenos Aires airport is the easiest airport in the entire world. It took no more than 20 minutes to get from the airplane through baggage and customs and out to the general hallways of the airport at large. And it only took that long because of a mercifully short wait to have our passports stamped. Amazing.

A two hour wait for Eriks to get in included realizing we had flown down with the entire Argentine basketball team (click here for video 2) and my first interaction in Spanish (needed change for a 20 peso bill.)

IV.

By the end of the very long day, I was glad I was here. It was hard to leave, but it was the right thing to do. I knew it when I tucked myself into the bed, for that moment content with having no idea what was coming next.