I woke up this morning at 11am, and had a feeling of dread wash over me. I have less than a month left. How did this happen? I can not really tell you, but it is such a weird feeling. This whole experience has been full of ups and downs. I came here as a scared (and pretty pathetic) girl, crying hysterically, shaking for days scared out of my mind. Now here I am, finding solace walking around the city alone: unafraid. I have traveled far and wide, booking my own trips, making my own decisions and growing up (okay so I have been a tad dependent upon Big Jim and Big Al for some extra $$) none the less, totally independent. I have made mistakes, friends and gained life experience. It is so amazing how far I have come since I was crying myself to sleep the first two nights in BA.
Part of me is ready to go home. Part of me yearns for the normalcy of training for lacrosse and working. I am excited to see all of my friends, and go college hopping (something I have never had time for before). However, part of me is freaking out... normalcy seems so mundane now. Now that I have lived an exhilerating, fast paced, surreal lifestyle these last few months. I just want to go to fake school forever, and just live a lavish city life, booking vacations around South America, going to coffee at 11 pm on a school night, and flirtingly shamelessly with Argentine men as they twirl me around the dance floor of some of the best night clubs in the world. Who wouldn't want to do that forever? This is where the dread comes in, my fairytale life that holds little responsibility and a skewed sense of reality is quickly coming to an end, whether I like it or not.
"Life is not measured by the number of breathes we take, but by the moments that take our breath away"- Unknown
(Thank you Mama Iorio)
I guess the full weight of this quote never hit me until I got here. I felt this feeling of my breath being taken away in the depths of the Andes Mountains, on the top of the Iguazu Falls, but nothing quite like my trip to Brazil. There isn't a moment I would like to freeze, but my whole trip. From the time our trip started when we had the idiotic idea to order an expensive bottle of wine at the airport while we waited for our severly delayed flight. All the way to our final night drinking CapriVodkas, laughing until we cried at our favorite sea side shack, while the sun set over us in Buzios, Brazil. I can't remember ever being so happy, so relaxed, and so in awe of my life. I am so lucky. Let's just say, dragging my butt to school yesterday was almost impossible.
However, I still have one trip left!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to Ushuia, the most southern city in the world in Patagonia in a couple weeks. This weekend I am volunteering at a battered womens shelter, then going out to the country side to build houses with a program like Habitat for Humanity for a couple of days. The next weekend I am going just north of here to the Tigre River (not pronounced Tiger, Mom), to go swimming, kayaking and you know all that outdoorsy stuff I love. Throw a couple of finals and papers in the mix, then I am home. Twenty-Nine more Dinners, as Hannah would say (and I cant say Ivette's dinners will be something I miss, the fact that I still have 29 of them left makes my stomach curl a bit). See you soon.
=)
No comments:
Post a Comment