Countdown

Things are winding down, and the ship is a mixture of summer vacation and sadness. After the last African dance session and our last sea meeting, complete with milk and cookies and ice cream cake, everyone ran around the ship, frantically waving flash drives and carrying dying computers, trying to exchange the last of the pictures from various countries.

Jenn and I just finished packing. It was a lot easier and less time consuming than I thought it would be, and there’s a surprising amount of space in my suitcase. Although, let it be known, I think the one with my toiletries will have to be repacked because it’s over 50 lbs. Bummer, but I was pretty efficient. Now it’s 3 am and people are still in the hallway trading pictures, stopping in people’s rooms, socializing, and reminiscing.

I made a video for Jenn today. My objective was to get her to cry by the end. Psh. It didn’t even get to the sad songs before the tears came. Winner.

Tomorrow will be weird and sad and overwhelming. Now that our room is bare, it’s a little harder to call it home, but it still feels good knowing that I haven’t had a “bad day” in at least 104 days.

I feel like I have so much to reflect on, and I think I’ll be writing at least a little while after I return home on Tuesday. Sometime when things have calmed down and I’ve had a chance to think. I can’t imagine looking outside of my window and seeing grass and a tree and a road. I can’t imagine walking to class and not falling into the wall or an innocent bystander. It will be different, or the same, or reality maybe. We’ll see when the time comes.