Yesterday, upon returning to my room after sliding my way down a snowy hill in my car, half frozen, very shaken and tired, I sat down to check my email. Let it be noted, that I have been compulsively checking my email for several days, since my Semester at Sea application was completed. But in that moment, as I vented to my mom about the perils of driving while its snowing, I saw it- the email I had been waiting for. There it was, wedged between modified food service hours due to snow and the annoying email telling me my password was about to expire, as if hiding itself among these mundane notices (though the food one is, actually, important) would somehow lesson the excitement it would herald into my life.
I just started to scream- I don't even remember what the words were (if there had really been any words, not just inarticulate vowel sounds of excitement).
"Dear Mallory,
Congratulations on your academic admission to Semester at Sea. Please see the attached document for more information concerning your admission and how to reserve your space on the MV Explorer for your voyage."
After reading the email several times in quick succession I joined the facebook group for my voyage, reorganized my Semester At Sea binder (in which, I have been keeping my admission materials for my home University as well as for SAS) in preparation for the new materials I will be receiving in the next few weeks, and hung the calendar of places the voyage will take me that my mom made me for Christmas (which, it should be noted, took the place of my Josh Groban calendar, which was moved to a different, though less prominent location. This is a big deal, though you may not know it).
Now I just have to wait the few days/weeks to put down my deposit. The full weight of this voyage is starting to settle in, though for now I feel less stress and more excitement. In a few months time, in the midst of visa applications and gathering all of the money for the voyage while taking 19 credit hours for my last semester before the voyage, I am sure the feeling will switch, but for now I am full of promise for the future. SAS is the beginning to how I, in some small way, will start to change the world, and how the world will start to change me.
Also- just on a kind of house keeping note, next to every title, I plan on keeping a countdown until the voyage in days. This countdown has been active on my computer since last July, when I decided I wanted to do the Fall 2011 voyage, but here it will keep all my family and friends updated on the progress of time and my own progress as we inch toward the next massive step I will take in my life.
Until next time,
Best Wishes!
ps- I would also like to express my most sincere regret for what has happened in Arizona to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 17 other people, as reports continue to roll in on the evolving status of the victims. She was merely a woman who was wanting to change the world. As John Green said on twitter "It is very sad to me that some people are so intent on leaving their mark on the world that they don't care if that mark is a scar". All of our hearts and good wishes go out to the Congresswoman, the other victims, and their families.
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