in transit

Today was my last ballet class at CCM. It's bittersweet. I've had a great year, but I'm incredibly excited to be moving on. As of today, all that's between me and the end of freshman year (!!) is six days, one paper, and one final.

It's a very interesting feeling, when an experience is ending forever. I know I'll be able to see my wonderful friends from Cincinnati, but I'll never be a CCM ballet major again. Up until a few years ago, my life, while wonderful, had been so consistent that I had never really experienced the true ending of an era (except, of course, eighth grade graduation from my most magical grade school). Change consisted mostly of new paint colors or moving from the fourth grade to the fifth. But recently, my life has been nothing but change, transition and new experience.

The summer before my senior year of high school, my parents and I moved from our shady little suburban town to a postcard village near Geneva, Switzerland. My life was absolutely upside down. It was a fantastic experience, and I am so ridiculously grateful for the year that I got to spend in Switzerland--and all the school breaks and holidays that I still spend there. But as I left California, a drop of regret seeped into the excitement. The realization suddenly hit me that I could never again live my experience in the Bay Area. The time in my life when I lived with my cozy little family in a shady little town near all of my relatives and friends was coming to an end. This was not to say that I could never visit the Bay Area again, or see my friends. This was not to say that I was leaving my parents yet or that Jamie would stop coming to visit us for holidays; however, my life as I had known it was taking the biggest and most permanent turn I had ever experienced.

I had the same feeling when I left Switzerland last summer, but with much more sadness. While I was excited for college, there were so many more things in Europe that I wish I could have had time to explore. Leaving California, I was so ready for something out of the ordinary; Switzerland still feels new and exciting. Or course, I plan to go back and live there someday, but that will be a new experience, another change.

And now, here I am again, on the brink of a new change, a new transition. It's a bit daunting, to be making so many big changes in three years, but I've found that I love the adventure and the discovery. That probably has something to do with why I love traveling so much.

NYC is on the horizon. But for now, a visit to California, ballet in Orlando, and then home to Switzerland--summer!!