Sunday, January 29, 2012

Departure

      I wanted to use my first post while I was still in the states. I leave soon for China, where I'll be studying abroad at Tsinghua University. My goal is to have mastered speaking Chinese after my six months there are completed. This will be an absolute immersion program, and boy am I nervous. It never really registered that I was leaving until yesterday. All this time of preparation and red tape, it just felt like some other chore I had to do, another quirk in the life of growing responsibility. Now, I realized I won't be living in the fort, with the highest crime rate in Knoxville being one attempted armed robbery every four weeks. No, now I'll be in the northwest district of  just shy of fourth largest city in the world Beijing.
       I would like to take this post and use it to thank a few people, first of which is my family. Without the support of them(despite some of the "true" hearsay stories they've heard) this would never be possible. My friends, naturally, have been supportive as well. Mostly in the way of cookies and cake, which received no complaints from me. There are two people in particular that deserve name recognition. The first would be my brother, Logan. I get hell from everybody saying how much we look/talk/laugh/write like each other. Add that to the fact that I'm earning a history major like him, it's hard to argue the point. Regardless of all that though, without him living in South Korea it never would have seemed possible to go abroad. I come from a family that has stayed in Knoxville for centuries, and even in college I never fully understood that I was old enough to make my own choices. Not just ones of drinking or going to class or studying, but true decisions, where I decide the course of my future. The second, and very prominent person, is my mother. After a few deep breaths (actually a couple of days worth) when I told her I too, her younger son, would be leaving, she was gung-ho about it. She paid for passport expenses, and countless other things, as well as making sure I was well prepared for every step of the process. She has been the unsung hero of my life, and these last few months have been no exception.
    With that, I now prepare to pack up the last few things and leave the country for the first time ever (Canada never counts).  The next time I write I will be in my spacious and luxurious corner of a room.
                                                                  美國