Holiday Season

Hey everyone, it's Adam here. I would like to start this post by saying thank you to everyone that was able to attend the going away festivities. Jess and I were so happy to spend some time surrounded by our friends and family.

That brings me to what I wanted to talk about in this post: time. Being in the thick of the holiday season with the countdown to Christmas having begun, I am all of a suden accutely aware of exactly how much time Jess and I have left with family and friends, or rather how little time we have left. And as I have been thinking about this almost constantly over the last week as we enjoyed an amazing two day long Thanksgiving, I felt that I would put fingers to my keypad and let it out.

I can not begin to express to all of you how anxious and excited I am to depart for South Africa. There is the joy of knowing that our dreams have at last come true. There is the relief that all of our work and sacrifice have paid off. But there is something more that makes me anxious to leave. There is a drive deep inside of me to be in a culture entirely dissimilar to my own, to reach that state of culture shock that makes me wonder what it is I am doing there. It is those moments that I can hardly wait for. In those moments I will know for sure that all of this is really happening.

Though a part of me is so anxious to depart, there is the other part of me that is thinking of all the things I would like to do and all of the people that I would like to do them with before time runs out. Every decision that I make about what to do with my time has become a an important one. I don't want to waste a single moment that I have left. With dates already scheduled throughout December time feels shorter still. There is, in a more urgent way than ever before, so much to do and so little time. I am trying to spend as much quality time with my family as I can. Also, I am trying to make time to spend with friends, almost like stocking up on memories and coversation to last me through the coming drought. There is research and language lessons for the Peace Corps as well as slowly but surely assembling the stuff we need to bring with us. Then there is getting ready for the holidays with decorations and outings and such. Finally there are the tasks that suddenly seem mundane or almost pointless in light of the situation, like paying those last few bills.

It is an interesting paradox where every day taht passes takes away time that I desperately need in order to fit everything in and yet I am also exited that I am another day closer to departure. Even now I want to say that I hope departure comes quickly so the inner turmoil will end and yet I want time to slow a bit so that I can catch up. I think that at this point I can only begin to seize every oppurtunity to spend time with people and live like time is up, because I know that soon it will be.