Excited

Well, it is official! I'm going to leave the country. I just booked a flight to the Ukraine. It's been a pretty interesting year, to say the least. I'm only anticipating what next year will be like.

It is unusual for me to feel scared. Tonight I actually think I was afraid of my first trip abroad. Then I realized it was mostly excitement, perhaps with a little anxiety. Anxious to get the fuck out of the US. I've lived here all my life and can't wait to get out. Can't wait to have a new perspective on the world. Provide evidence that we don't all support Bush or his administration. Prove to myself that I am as liberal and forward thinking as I think I am. Experience culture shock for the first time. Realize there IS more to the world than the bureaucratic bull shit I deal with daily and see first-hand what it might entail....I think my fear is that I'm wrong. Perhaps when I START to see the world I'll realize that the US is the place I belong and want to live the rest of my life as I have. I know one trip to the Ukraine probably isn't going to qualify as "SEEING" the whole world. Hopefully this is just the beginning.

While I anticipate living here all my life due to convenience, I'm taking this trip to reinforce that I don't want to live here all my life as I have. I need to experience other places and people so that I can bring a broader perspective to living that will make it worthwhile to exist in the US and be proud to be an American. So that when I say I live here it isn't JUST saying, "I live here and I'm proud to be an American." but to say it and mean that I live here and I'm proud to be an American that thinks differently because of my experiences. That I have experiences that have changed the way I see people. That I can see people without judgment and learn from them without a conservative bias or any bias at all.

I feel that if more people traveled with this intention the world would be a better place.

Well that was a good ramble and if you read it all I hope we can have a drunken discussion about it.

Till then.....More on squirrels later. Really, I promise.