Airport Shuffle

I am proud to say that I made it safely through the airport with no hiccups (minus a few minutes of being lost). I felt a tad bit anxious making my way through security but then again who isn’t? It goes by fairly quickly if you actually pay attention to the guidelines they give you online – super helpful by the way. So after sliding my shoes back on and strapping up my belt I eventually made my way over to my gate and found myself reliving my first visit to Japan with my high school classmates back in 2010. Being excited then does not even compare to the excitement I feel right about now. But I suppose traveling abroad alone to a country you haven’t seen in three years will do that to you.

I will say that leaving my grandma at the kiss ‘n ride drop-off area was kind of hard. She didn’t exactly show any signs of sadness but she did seem rather happy to see me off. Then again I’d rather see her smile as I walked away than watch tears stream down her face. I’ll admit I was choking up when I was telling her goodbye. I tried saying that I was going to call when I made it there but the words didn’t quite come out so I simply hugged her, smiled, waved and went on my way. It’s amazing how vulnerable you feel when you have a good cry – I do it all too often to be honest but how could I not, especially now? Excuse the profuse amount of emoting, I promise to reduce it to a few blogs a month, lol.

Saying I will miss all my family and friends hardly captures the depth of sadness I feel being apart from everyone I know and love, but I go with a purpose and will surely make the best of my situation. My only hope at the end of these few months is that I come back a better person (and a better speaker of Japanese) and have an even hotter fire urging me on to bigger and better things. All I ask of my readers is for your thoughts and prayers throughout my travels. Oh and wish me luck! 一所懸命頑張りますよ！