Pre-travel Thoughts

I bought my ticket about 2 months before I was scheduled to leave. At first, I was exhilarated, but my departure was so distant that it did not yet seem real. This past week, it has finally sunk in that I am leaving. Since I graduated, I've been waiting for this moment, but now that it is rapidly approaching, I realize that I have come to enjoy the monotony of life here. I've become comfortable with my job - which I orginally took to save enough money to go travelling! - and I've made new amazing friends. I've also been able to just enjoy life in Montreal. At school, I was always so busy that I never had enough time to really experience the city and all that it has to offer. The last 6 months have given me exactly that opportunity. While my comfort with my life is new and interesting to me, it also makes me think that this is just the time to leave - before I get too comfortable!

I guess my apprehension about leaving is mostly because I have no return date, and no real plans beyond the first couple of months. So it feels like I am cutting almost all my ties in this city. A strange feeling that I am trying very hard to accept and let pass. The intense realization that I am leaving all this behind has changed how I see everything around me and how I experience every moment. This is something that I've forgotten, but that I remember feeling when I left Vancouver. I guess when you make a life for yourself in a new city, it's hard to leave it all behind.

My apprehension and doubts are however intersected with pure excitement and wonder at the unknown road before me. I am reading a great book that my sister lent me: Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. It is inspiring me and exciting me about my future as a vagabonder, but it is also grounding me, keeping me from romanticizing travel too much. I keep thinking of a Cat Stevens song, The Wind. I don't know what is in front of me, but I am as ready as I'll ever be to embrace it!