Planning

The older I get the more I realize that nothing goes exactly how I planned they would. I always imagined that once I finished college I would be able to find a job, move into my own house and "begin" my life. Well here I am almost 1 year post graduation and I will be leaving to go to Switzerland for a year to become an Aupair. Is this what I imagined I'd ever be doing in my life? Not at all, I imagined the only chance I'd get to see Europe would be my future honeymoon. Even with these pre-dispositioned thoughts I still feel like this is exactly what I should be doing right now.

I've never been the kind to spontaneously make life changing decisions or even go anywhere far from my family. I've always lived how I assumed my life should progress. Grade school, college, job, family, that sort of thing. Even now I still can't really believe that I will be leaving in a mere 23 days to move to Europe by myself and stay with people that I have never personally met. My motivation behind this change was from a movie. I was watching P.S. I love you one night and realized how much I'd love to travel one day. Well, one day turned into in the next few months and after signing up with an online aupair agency of sorts I found a pretty remarkable family. I feel comfortable and right about this family and I suppose that's why I'm not freaking out about leaving my family for the first time in my life.

I'd like to document my travels and experiences abroad so that my friends and family will have a way to not only live vicariously through me but also know that I am safe and happy. At least that I plan to be. I hope to document my travels but also how I (a pretty typical American girl) will merge with a new culture. I have started to learn French and have already started researching European fashion treads which are unsurprisingly very similar to my own. I have also been researching travel techniques and packings lists that I plan to post on here as well. Perhaps I'll even inspire some to go out on a limb and travel themselves.

Even as I make mental plans and fantasize about what my year in Europe will be like I have to continue to remind myself that nothing goes according to plan.