Pre-trip nerves

Its almost midnight right now, which means that I have just over 24 hours before I leave for China.

Today has been kind of hectic with all kinds of scrambling and packing and running around downtown and buying last minute necessities and EVERYTHING!

I was talking to a family friend earlier about the trip, and she asked me if I was excited to go. She seemed very surprised when my answer was an abrupt "no". Usually when I talk about the trip, everyone tells me that I should be extremely excited...that this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience...that I shouldn't take it for granted...that I will learn so much while I'm there...that they wish they had this kind of opportunity when they were young...and the list goes on.

Sure, I'm completely aware that this trip will be an amazing pay-off, a trip to remember for the rest of my life, and hopefully a great step toward my dream career. Not only will I be learning Chinese, but I'll be "marketing" myself to various influential people along the way. Our group will hopefully be meeting with some representatives of the US state department, Motorola executives, and other people who (I'm told) are supposed to help make my future dreams come true.

I shouldn't complain then, should I? It'll be a lot of hard work, but six weeks isn't that long, I suppose. Maybe I am a little bit excited (maybe even very excited) but my pre-trip nerves are getting in the way of allowing me to see that. Excited or not, it doesn't really matter...either way, I'll be boarding a plane for China in no time...