Approaching the Home Stretch

It occurred to me last night, sitting in a cab looking up at the full moon as the warm night air blew in and totally did a number on my hair, that I only have two and a half months left here. Now, I always get all nostalgic and introspective when I'm about to turn a corner in my life. I think it started when I was a little kid, because I remember waxing poetic about the end of fifth grade. (And somehow, I don't think anybody wanted to hear me getting all philosophic on the jungle gym. God, I was ridiculous.)

But the corner looming in my future, waiting to be turned, is big. Way bigger than starting junior high (and hopefully it won't involve as many annoying fights and awkward slow dances). I'll be returning from a year abroad to both start a new phase of my life--grad school--while trying to fit my new reality into the rubric of my old life. This year has been amazing. It's been hard. It's been enriching. Most of all, though, it's making me into a very different person.

There's so much still to be done, too. I have to start carrying my camera with me everywhere, because every time I leave campus, there's an amazing photo opportunity that I wish like hell I could capture. And I gots to do s'more traveling. I leave for Egypt tomorrow morning, and can't wait. I'll have plenty of time to get all nostalgic and contemplative when I'm sitting in an Egyptian sherut, hurtling across the Sinai en route to Cairo. And, hell, did I ever think I'd actually see the Pyramids or the Valley of the Kings? Nope. If that doesn't get me all think-y and profound (I can't help it. My mother has a Ph.D. in Philosophy. It's genetic.), nothing will. We'll see what sort of deep thoughts I come up with while I bake under the North African sun.