And so the journey begins...

It all began when I purchased my $1,600 plane ticket.....ouch! I keep thinking of all the debt I could possibly be in after this trip. But then I realize something. When am I ever going to be able to have the freedom to do it after college? It's a perfect time now to be able to see another world, another culture. More importantly though, I'll be able to grow as a person...and you can't put a price on that.

So on August 25, 2008 at 4:35pm, I will be boarding a plane to Mumbai, India. At first I couldn't believe that I was actually doing it. It was like a cloud in the sky. A dream that was just a dream. And I was standing on the ground with no way up to the cloud. To be honest, I don't think that it will actually hit me that I really am going to India until I board that plane. Who knows, maybe it won't even hit me until I smell the new smells and see the new sites in India.

I've always known that I wanted to study abroad in college. For me, I knew that it would be much harder to travel around the world if I waited til after college, so college was the time to do it. Professor Stracke's sociology class really opened me up to different cultures. He opened me up to so much and I am forever thankful. I've always been interested trying new things and going new places. But at the time, I thought new places meant going out to Colorado or something. But India? Why not! And when I want to study abroad, I want to go all the way. Throw myself out of my comfort bubble and travel to a completely different culture. Turn me upside down, twirl me and let me experience something I have never seen before. I won't know until next fall if ripping myself out of my comfort zone was the best thing for me, but we'll see. You never know until you try it, right?

The independence factor will definitely be interesting. Until high school, I was so unbelievably shy and wouldn't do anything without someone else there with me. In high school though, I had to stand up for myself due to some learning disability issues. I needed to stick up for myself and make sure that I got the education that I deserved. That was when I slowly started to break out of my shell and become who I am today. Today for me, it's always nice to have someone else there with me experiencing the same things that I am, but it's surely not necessary. Having people around me makes me feel more comfortable in that environment, but also being able to experience things on my own is great. I have come so far from being that shy girl in middle school.

So here I am, being thrown out of my comfort zone and into a new culture. No safety nets included on this one. So thanks for reading this and listening to my experiences in India. It's going to be a very interesting journey come August 25th.