Packing my life into a Jetta in 3 days...

Welcome to my blog! This is my first attempt at a journal-type publication, and also the first time I will let others see my feelings about what is going on around me. Hopefully, I will help you feel as if you are there!

I am currently three days from my moving-day to Missoula, Montana. In the past couple weeks, anyone who has asked me if I am excited has received the answer, "I am pretty much scared shitless". Sorry. It was the truth, and I am not ashamed. The past few days have found me getting less and less scared and more and more excited for this next chapter in my life. Thank goodness. People say, "You will be fine, you will be fine." Yes, I know. But no matter how extroverted, friendly, easy-going someone is, it is still scaaaary to move to an entirely new place. I relate it to travelling. I absolutely love travelling, but everytime I go on a trip, I find myself nervous that things will not go right, I will not find friends, I will get sick, etc. But, everything always works out. The same thing will happen with Montana!

Not only am I enthusiastic to discover a new city, a new university, and a whole new part of the country (and by new, I mean it has always been there...I have just not ventured to that part yet), but I am eager to begin my studies. Summer usually finds me restless, with my mind easily getting distracted by every little thing, my body filled entirely too much with Mountain Dew and not enough of water, and my eyes stuck too much to the computer or the television. It is the perfect recipe for purposely allowing my brain cells to slip away. If I added in any sorts of substance abuse, fatty and salty foods, or mosh pits, it would be almost guaranteed I would be a vegetable in 3 months flat. Sounds like a great experiment to do sometime. Hence, with the boringness and monotony of summer, I am pumped to be starting my new course of study, one in which I am so passionate about and I feel I could never learn enough. For your information, this is the purpose of my program:

"The Intercultural Youth and Family Development program degree is designed for students who wish to engage in culturally-relevant volunteer work or paid employment in the realm of child and family assistance.The University of Montana is proud to announce an innovative master's degree in Intercultural Youth and Family Development. This unique degree program offers students graduate instruction in human development from a psychological and counseling perspective, and is intended to prepare students to engage in cross-cultural volunteer work or paid employment with young people and/or families." (http://www.soe.umt.edu/edldc/iyfd/default.shtm)

So, it is obvious that because of my continuous internal urges to travel and see the world, work with people, and make a difference with youth, it should hopefully be the perfect program for me. That is, until I get my second master's. But that is down the road. As my former supervisor claims I said one day, "I just want to be poor!" As a social worker, it can be almost guaranteed.

So, as I finish writing this, my stuff still remains strewn all over my living room, boxes stay empty, and papers wait to be filed. The main goal is to pack my life into my Jetta - which needs to be done in the next three days. Fun times, fun times.