The Beginning- First thoughts on school

So the end has begun- my senior year of college.
Unlike my friends attending classes at this moment I am sitting watching The Office for the umpteenth time, deciding to finally start my blog and looking at my disorganized room. My senior year does not start for 16 more days when I will say goodbye to my family and step on a plane to head to Dublin for 3 months. I've decided to spend my first semester of my senior year studying abroad instead of going to the bars up in Plattsburgh with my friends.

Studying abroad was a big decision that came with a lot of hesitation and anxiety. Despite all of this I made the choice to go for several different reasons:

• I did not want to graduate in December, might as well stretch it out as long as I can
• I mean who wouldn't want to go to a place overseas for an extended amount of time and just live life
• It is what my dad would have loved to see me do. Before he passed away he made sure to tell me to take advantage of any opportunity I can, he wanted so much more for us
• I need this. I need the chance to see what it would be like to be completely independent and live on my own before I have to in the real world

My family supported me throughout high school and when I went away to college in Upstate New York they were still there for me. If I needed to escape for the weekend my aunt was close and my hometown only a few hours further. If I wasted my money on silly decorations or clothing I always had the option to call Mom up and ask nicely for her help. That is no longer, I am going overseas and taking out loans putting myself in charge of my life. I need to grow up and start living like I am going to in a few months. 

So this is it. I will leave behind my mother, sister, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and boyfriend. I will have to celebrate not only my 21st birthday in a country whose drinking age is 18, but also the first Thanksgiving without my father. I will have milestones in a foreign place with the hope I'll have friends by that point... I could not be more excited. I get the chance to do what not many people do. I get the chance to just live my life. I (hopefully) get the chance to enter the sports journalism program in Dublin and start my dreams. I get the chance to meet new people and just be me all over again. I get the chance to live in a different country without my safety net. 

This is all something I cannot wait to do and these 16 days need to go by faster.