First Star To The Right And Straight On Til Morning...

I am a 25 year old American girl and today I'm leaving the only home I've ever known and getting on a plane to live in the Netherlands.

Six months ago, I jumped out of a plane. I mention this because to me, jumping out of a plane is a lot like moving 6,000 miles away. You have to prepare for it in the same way, but in the end, there is no way you can know if you'll be able to make that jump until you're crouching at the open door of a little plane 13,000 feet in the sky. For weeks before the time comes, you teeter between feelings of excitement and fear like a yo-yo, you think about the "what-ifs", and sometimes you just wonder why in the world you're jumping out of a perfectly good plane. But when that chute opens, and you start to glide towards the ground, it's like you can finally breath again. You can stop, relax, and just enjoy the view. I imagine that will be a lot like seeing my Michel again for the first time in 2 months and knowing that we are on our way home.

So, I had my last day at work yesterday and the feeling I had when I left that office for the last time was what I remember of the feeling I had on my last day of high school. Freedom. Freedom to go and be whatever I want to. It was a fun 4 years, but it's time to move on.

Maybe it hasn't quite set in yet, but I'm not staring at that open door just yet either. I don't know what its going to be like, I don't know if I'll like my new country and I don't know if I'll have trouble learning the language, but what I do know, is that i'm going to give it everything I have to make it work. I have faith that I can do anything if I want it bad enough, and I want this more than i've ever wanted anything. Two of my dreams are coming true today...I couldn't ask for more.

When I'm old, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that when I was young, I lived my dreams. I did the thing that I wanted to do and I never looked back. In my weeks leading up to this, I've spoken to a lot of people, and most of them told me about something a little crazy that they wanted to do when they were young but didn't do it...and that makes me a little bit sad. Complacency is a curse. Life is short, and I'm not willing to settle.

My flight leaves in 7.5 hours, then it's 10 hours through the night over this country and over the atlantic and then I'll be home with my Michel.

First star to right, and straight on till morning!

-Karen Michelle