1 week away

In 7 days from today, I will be getting to the airport right around this time and I will be about to embark on what will be, I'm sure, an experience of a lifetime. I can't say that I'm not nervous and scared, but all of that doesn't begin to compare to the excitement and anticipation I'm feeling. 

This weekend, I received a scrapbook that J put together with notes and letters from some of my closest friends. It was unbelievably overwhelming reading all the kind, amazing things people said about me and it made me realize just how blessed I am to have those people around me. Amongst those letters, LK quoted one of our favourite songs- "All I Can See" by Brendan James. 

This is a song that I have been playing over and over again in the past month because it captures the essence of why I am going on exchange and it reminds me of how I want to live this experience. I decided it was a great way of kicking off this blog, so here it is. 

All I Can See

I want to walk through this doorway
I want to open my mind
I want to pledge my allegiance to all I can find.
I want a car that will crash through the barriers
to a road no one knows.
I want to feel less control,
want to bend and I want to land far from home.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if i cannot learn
to journey and return,
to never rest till I've seen all I can see...

I want to learn a completely new language,
one I don't understand.
I want to help someone lost, someone helpless,
with the strength of my hand.
I want to come to the base of a statue built
before they counted the years,
and there i'll fall with my face in my hands and cry
and feel their hope in my tears.

The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if I cannot learn,
to journey and return,
to never rest till I've seen all I can see...

Train rides and pastures colliding...
colors and customs i've never seen...
I know I, yes I know I,
I know I will stumble
but time is precious my friend.

Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they'll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I'll never rest till I've seen all I can see.
No, I'll never rest till I've seen all i can see.

I want to know where the stength of a person lies,
in their past or their future.
Is it in the way that they hurt or they love themselves
or is it all an illusion?
I want to crawl from this skin that i'm painted in...
Body, please let it give.
I want to find the creator of all good things
and ask what it means to live