On the Night Before...

Where to begin? I'm not sure if leaving home for the second time is easier or harder than it was the first time. On one side, there are fewer friends here at home and even some where I'm going; on the other side, there will be no safety net like there was in college. Either way, I think the hardest part is leaving behind all those people that have made your life stable and comfortable for so many years. These people that have formed you into who you are and provided a context for your life give a certain familiarity that is difficult to leave. However, looking at it, I hope that freeing myself from this context will give me the room to have new ideas and experiences that will provide a foundation for how I lead the rest of my life. Here's to dreaming...








As for a more technical matter. The car is packed. Everything fit well and I even managed to get all my cooking stuff into the car! Above is a picture of the trunk (and yes, Matt, that is an 'Italia' jersey) with everything inside in a highly compressed state. I've also programmed all of destination addresses into the GPS and I've updated my IPod with some brand new tunes from several sources. To get a feeling for where I'm going to be spending my time over the next week and a half, here is a picture of the UI (User Interface for all non-computer science people, can you tell I'm excited to get started?). I've had the car checked out, new tires put on, and even changed the oil. Everything should be good to go and I'm hoping my trip is a mechanically sound one.


Baring any unforseen circumstances I plan to update this blog at least once every other day. I'll also be documenting my trip and posting pictures in the album with a link at the bottom of this page. I'll try to label all the pictures so you at least know what you're looking at. If anyone has any questions please comment on stuff and I'll try to answer them the next time I post.


To close this post on the night before I leave, I wanted to share with you two very different and seemingly contradictory quotes with a similar them that seemed especially pertinent to me. The first is from a classic Led Zeppelin song, appropriately named 'Going to California.' It is a song lamenting the loss of an old love and the struggle required to move on in life.


Standing on my heel on the mountain of dreams
Telling myself its not as hard, hard, hard as it seems


As I struggle to get ready for this new part of my life, this quote has a very poignant meaning for me. At the same time, a more uplifting lyric that has also played a major role in my life comes to mind:


We've been on the run
Driving in the sun
Looking out for number one
California here we come
Right back where we started from

California, California, here we come...


This Phantom Planet song never ceases to lift my spirits and give me hope that good things can always come from going to some place new, especially California. As a I goto sleep tonight and prepare to leave tomorrow, I'm sure these two songs will be juxtaposed in my mind, harmonizing and clashing with each other, but all the same reflecting the complexity of emotions that can exist as one phase of life ends and a new one begins. California, here I come...