only shooting stars break the mold

Goodbyes.

The majority are perfectly fine. Hugs, smiles, pictures, love yous, have a safe trips...but then there are the goodbyes where you know you will feel incomplete until you are with this person again. For a little while, the thought of leaving sounds completely insane. Why am I doing this, again? Why am I about to get on a plane and leave this person...again? Everyone I know is engaged or pregnant and I'm going to miss another year of celebrations...again? It's different for each person I've watched walk away, but man oh man. Then you find yourself sitting at Strawns and you suddenly burst into tears. That's the only time I've cried all summer, which is about a 3456% improvement from last summer. Yay progress!

Hopefully my cry face wasn't this terrible.

Even still, I am constantly reminded that this is all a part of a greater plan. This has been the fastest summer of my life, but it never really felt like summer. Probably because I haven't sweated the ENTIRE TIME I've been here. That's right, folks. Move to Cambodia and then Louisiana will be a breeze! I've been cold every day and I used to never get cold. Ask Kaiti Rees. I'm actually looking forward to the Southeast Asian heat.

Speaking of Southeast Asia, this summer made me realize I did a horrible job of telling people where I actually am in the world. It's ok if you thought I was in Colombia...a lot of people did. Alas, I am not to be found in South America, but rather, on the whole other side of the planet!

Here's your World Geography lesson for today: Cambodia borders Thailand and Vietnam. It's not incredibly far from Australia. It's about a 5 hour flight to South Korea.

Colombia, however, is in South America, NOT Asia.

So, there you go. The time difference is 12 hours because I'm on the other side of the planet. If you have any more questions, please holla.

I need to stop procrastinating and finish packing and checking things off my list, so I'll end here. I'll write more about summer once I get back to my beloved Cambobo and get back into a routine.

Thank you all for a wonderful summer! I am loved and blessed far more than I deserve.

M