Four Days

When I was a kid and we lived in Knoxville, TN before my family moved back to Atlanta, Dad went on a lot of business trips all over the country.  He still does (he's in Ottawa for a conference now, so technically not "all over the country"), of course, but it was a bigger deal back then because I was in grade school, and we all missed him.  I remember that, no matter the length of his trips, he would always say, "See you in four days!" cheerfully as he left.  He also said it when going out to cut the grass or leaving the house for any reason.

It's now four days, basically, 'til I leave for a long time.  I have an incredible amount of preparation to do in that time. I've made all my visits now--Savannah, Jekyll, Pensacola, and Athens.  All of them were great, of course.  Now the hard part starts--moving my life seven time zones away, to a region I know almost nothing about and have no connection to--familial, ancestral, or otherwise. I've met and worked with Ukrainians before, and that's about it.  I don't speak any Russian or Ukrainian.  The farthest east I've ever been before is Italy.  It's gonna be a shock, like plunging through the ice on a lake in winter.  Which I've done before--the lake on the golf course right behind our yard when I was a kid.

So.  Anyway.  This week is going to be busy and filled fit to burst at the seams with emotions--excitement for the adventure, anxiety about the travel, curiosity about the people with whom I'll be traveling and working with, sadness for leaving everything I love behind in Georgia, and happiness at doing what seems to be best for a young man with no idea what the future may bring for him. 

Now that I've waxed sentimental, I have some real work to do.  I need to exercise.  Running is awesome because my lungs are in great shape back here at (near) sea level.  I need to pack.  My sister's old bedroom has almost every article of clothing I own strewn about in it.  I need to get a bunch of paperwork and whatever personal effects I'm taking in order.  My state of packing right now is, shall we say, non-existent.  And even though we lost to Arkansas, I had too much fun this weekend in Athens.  Such a thing is definitely possible.

Five months ago, I was a student at the University of Georgia.  I was headed to CO to work for the summer and maybe longer if I couldn't figure out what I was doing come autumn.  I reckoned that working random jobs would be more fun in a different part of the country.  Three weeks ago, I was Daily Program Director at Camp Chief Ouray in Winter Park, at the tail end of the best (maybe second-best) summer of my life.  Two weeks ago, I arrived back in Georgia after driving 22 hours through Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee.  One week ago, I was watching the VMAs at my sister's new apartment in Brunswick.  In one week, I'll be an expat in Kyiv.  In about 2 months, I'll be freezing in my "first" real winter.  It's "first" because I don't count the 2 years we lived in Milwaukee because I was, well, 2 years old. 

At some point, I'm going to write a screenplay for a TV show based on the last 4 months of my life.  It's been that epic.  That sentence sounds a lot more morbid than I intended. 

One more non sequitur before I go work out in the basement.  Since I'm about to leave the States for a long time and represent my country to foreigners, here's a list of all the states I've actually been to--31 of them, plus DC.

LIVED IN (6)
CO, GA, NC, TN, WI, TX
VISITED (17)
FL, SC, AL, MS, LA, AR, VA, IN, IL, PA, MD, DC, CT, MA, NY, MO, AZ
DROVE THROUGH (8)
NM, KY, DE, OH, NJ, RI, KS, OK