I was always the sort of kid who had trouble sleeping before the first day of school. If I think too much before bed (usually out of excitement or worry) I fall prey to insomnia. And for a day that I’ve been anticipating for a few years, I slept surprisingly well last night–my cough was the only thing that kept me up for a while.
In a few hours I’m leaving Canada for seven months. A lot of people have been asking how I’m feeling and looking slightly surprised that I’m not more visibly excited. When you decide years ahead of time you’re going to go live in another country, you tell everyone but it doesn’t really mean anything. It was just this thing that was in the back of my head I pulled out in conversation sometimes. When it got to the one-year countdown, I finally had to make some real decisions to prepare for it and make it happen (like moving back with my parents.)
Around the one month mark was when I really realized what was going to happen. The anxiety started to build and more than one night ended in tears. People didn’t seem to understand when I confessed I was suddenly scared of going. They said it was going to be fine, I was going to have a great time and they seemed to mean it. It took me until the last week to calm down.
A quick recap of what’s happened in the last week. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stopped into my News Reporting class and fielded questions from eager hoard of J-schoolers.
I asked him to what extent government entities (specifically the Human Rights Commission) should have in say in editorial content. He gave me an honest answer, “I don’t have a neat and tidy answer for you,” and went about a roundabout story involving lecturing a Pakistani university. It was probably the most exciting thing that has happened in J-School thus far.
Later that night I had my goodbye party at my on-and-off-again haunt, The Library. Conveniently, I chose that night to begin promoting this website. Having a crowd of people available and a few drinks in a my system was just a coincidence.
And that’s it. Bye Canada, see you in seven months. Next stop: The Netherlands.
