Departure

I seem to leave Colorado on the most beautiful of sunny days. 

Be it France, Scotland, Russia, Italy, or New Zealand, for any past adventure on which I have embarked the day I leave seems to remind me, with every breath of cool air, just what it is I love about everything I have here, in Colorado, at home.

But my bags are packed, my documents are in order, and today I leave for another year-long adventure.  This time my destination is Moscow, Russia.

In the weeks leading up to this departure, I was regularly asked if I was nervous about packing.  To tell you the truth I was, but, as I confided to a friend, I was mostly concerned about which of my books I would allow myself the luxury to indulge in over the year.  After all, it’s not easy to look at your bookshelf, peruse volume after volume of your favorites, and select out the few which can accompany you on your journey.

Each book must have a reason to make this journey.  My copy Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” is old and oft-underlined from numerous readings dating back to the first days of Bucknell Book Club, but the best thing about this book is that every time you read it, it is never the same.  “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson” is the best medicine for a soul in times of difficulty.  Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” inspires and reinvigorates the individual to fight on into the cold and dark Russian night.

And, of course, there is “Marley and Me”.  Because Tanya gave it to me, and I haven’t read it yet.

There are a whole mix of books in my bags, and quite the combindation of emotions flowing through me in these final hours before my flight.  Nervousness, anticipation, excitement, sadness, worry, and, of course fatigue (this is what happens when you’re on 3 hours of sleep and get up to go to the gym to spin at 6 o’clock in the morning).

But before I go, I want welcome all of my friends, family, and loved ones to this online journal of mine.  I decided to write a blog for this trip so that I would not clutter your inboxes with e-mails.  I hope that you will come back to this site once in a while, to check up on me, and see how I am.  Writing a blog is like putting a message in a bottle – I send my words out to the world, and I hope, that even though I am on the other side of it from all of you, you will check into this bit of me every once in a while.

As I was packing my bags, I dug into my travel gear and came across my old maps of Moscow, my gym card to the city’s Planet Fitness, and even the cell phone I purchased when I was living over there.   These artifacts reminded me that, no matter what I feel right now, this is an adventure I have known I would take for some time.  I have been preparing for it ever since I left Russia on December 21, 2003.   

I love you all, and will miss you very much in these days, weeks, and months to come.  But underlying my mix of emotions there is a strong sense of happiness, and peace. 

So today is a celebration.  Thank you for sharing it with me.