Pre-Journey Jitters

Three weeks left until I leave. Or 21 days. Or not soon enough.

Tickets...check

Pills and shots so I don't crap my pants or die...check

Healthy dose of apprehension about leaving to a foreign land for a long time, for the first time...check

I have started to learn a few useful things in Hindi, such as 'please' and 'sorry', which translate roughly as 'pleez' and 'sori'...Man this is tougher than I thought! Ha!

I felt like I should do a pre-game blog about my trip, for my own sake, to keep track of the process which brought me to India. Feel free to ignore this first post and wait anxiously for my first 'on-location' submission. Adieu.

So here goes:

Two years ago, as many of my closest people know, I went through a bit of a rough patch which inevitably led me to some type of enlightenment, as all hard times are wont to do. I learned a few things. One, that this is MY life, and it is up to ME (capital me and no one else) to make it a good one. Two, that patience and understanding lead to my happiness. And three, for the sake of brevity, that accepting that there is no God and that all this can end in a heartbeat or less means I need to act now and become a happy person. For god-fearers, please just move on and read the rest if you've already gotten this far :)

interjection: I accidentally deleted this very perfectly and carefully written journal and I am kind of angry right now. So the rest may be less than perfect and sligthly bitter heh heh...nope I don't have the energy, so I will re-write later. FAREWELL FOR NOW.

Okay so here goes again:
Really short version of the last masterfully written entry I will probably ever write...I wanted to travel to pursue part of my happiness. I thought at one time that all things cool and exciting were unattainable, for me at least. After seeing so many of my close friends succeed in life and do so many wondeful things, I decided that I was able to do these things too.
On my list of top places to go, I ended up choosing India (over the middle east, for reasons obvious to anyone reading in this decade). I am scared but excited and longing for a challenge. For something to force me out of my element. India welcomed me with open arms, so far at least.

I spent the last two years working my ass off to become a better person, as well as save money for India and succeed in school. I achieved all of the above, but at the expense of my savings account. This year though, I made a concerted effort to save money for this trip, as well as put my "regular" life on hold (moving to Montreal and finding a job) to force myself into going on this trip with no excuses.

I did it! And, as a bonus, I got Ryan Shantz as a last minute add on to my checklist of things to bring to India. He is the best person to travel with that I can think of and he is even more "getupandgo" than me. So now I am counting down the days...in Hindi no less...

I must apologize to myself for having deleted the old entry, since I spent minutes on each sentence to make it as poetic as possible and then deleted it like a careless fool. I will mind my typing next time, since this entry pales in comparison.

So, I'll do my best to keep this blog updated on a regular basis, but I have never been a good journal-keeper so this may turn into an anthology of reflective reminiscent poetry written two years down the line, as all other of my life's events turn out to be.
Until next time,
Leanne