and so it begins...

My bags are packed and currently sitting by the door, waiting patiently for me.  In just a few hours or so, I'll be sitting on a plane on my way to the biggest freaking adventure of my life.  It might sound silly or cliche to some people (no, I'm not Julia Roberts and no, this is not Eat Pray Love...although I plan on doing a lot of those things...)  but it truly feels like everything in the past couple years has been leading up to this.  People tell me I'm so lucky to be going, but I'm quick to assure them that luck has absolutely nothing to do with this.


Just getting to this point has been 75% hard work, 25% dreaming and 100% blessed.  You can keep your luck.  I am blessed.


I started this blog to keep my family and friends in the loop while I'm away.  But I have a feeling that when I look back on it months from now...it will be so much more.  This summer has flown by with work filling almost every day.  And now suddenly here I am.  Almost four months, alone, in a foreign country studying art and seeing the world and maybe where I might belong in it.  


I dunno who I'll be when I get back, but I'm hoping she's as beautiful as the hope in me right now.  


So cheers to an unforgettable trip, to the most amazing family a girl could ever ask for, to being scared, to being inspired, to getting lost, to becoming an explorer.


And please God, don't let my plane go down in the ocean.  I'm soft, the sharks will go for me first.


More to come,
Hayden