Friday, August 29, 2008

Getting Started

My family and I left Minnesota for Massachusetts sometime around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. I had spent the previous two days packing everything that was necessary (clothes, printer, movie posters, 100+ DVDs). Along with that I had to figure out how to open up two different bank accounts since ATMs on the east coast don't have any affiliation with midwestern banks. Taking care of this is something I recommend doing sooner than two days before leaving. As much as I would like to say that it was sad staying in my bed for the last night for months, I can't say I felt that bad about leaving my house. The hardest thing about this whole process has been saying goodbye to people with the farewell "See you around Christmas.", which has knocked me into the reality of this experience more than anything else. That's a long time to go to a place where you don't know anybody.
Intent on arriving at our hotel as soon as possible, we drove for 25 consecutive hours, each of us taking shifts at the wheel. It was nice to get there as soon as possible, but sleeping in a packed car with four other people is no easy task. We arrived in Massachusetts at night, and I went to bed as soon as possible. The plan has been to get a few days of vacation in before I am dropped off at school, so we've been staying in Cape Cod for the past 2 days, and tomorrow I start school. I've been looking forward to it, or at least not dreading it, in spite of what I believe are my family's attempts to get me to admit some form of sadness ("It's your last night sleeping at home"..."Well...this is the last family car trip you'll take all year."..."Your last days before you begin college - nervous?"..."It's your last day before school starts, what would you like to do?"). What I'd like to do is start school now so I don't have to deal with people asking me how I feel about something I know nothing about.

Scotty (8/27/2008)�