Everything will change

​Jenny Lewis and Ben Gibbard 

If you had told the awkward, socially-anxious 14-year-old that spent Forensics trips listening to the Postal Service on his iPod that he'd be seeing them in Paris 9 years later on the first left of a 3 month trip that would take him across Europe for the fourth time to spend 2 months on an archaeological dig in Turkey, I don't think there's a chance that he would have believed that that was my future.

But here I am. 

Yesterday was a wild ride. I had one day to finish a major seminar paper, clean my apartment for my subletter, and pack for my 3 months abroad. Someone asked why I wasn't panicking yet. My answer was simple: it's too late to change any of the circumstances that I'm in. If I panic it'll only make things worse, and make me panic more. It wasn't really an option to panic. I knew exactly how much time I had, and I used it to finish exactly the work I needed to. 14-year-old me would have had a panic attack. 23-year-old me might have been stressed, but I put it aside to do the work I needed to.