My Visa has arrived!! 8 days until departure

I couldn’t sleep last night.  I had a million thoughts running through my head, along with that Gotye song “Somebody That I Used to Know”. I always know when I’m really stressed because I can never turn off the song in my head, even when I want to sleep. So I just laid there and listened and thought about all of the things that I will be experiencing over the next 5 months, all of the things I have to do to prepare in the next week, all of the people I have to see before I go, all of the items I have to fit into ONE suitcase (let's be real, I'll probably pay for a second one)! The list goes on…and its no wonder I couldn’t sleep.

I guess I did finally doze off, and when I woke up this morning and began my day there was a ring at the doorbell. My Visa was delivered!!!! As I read the words printed on that tiny little sticker on my passport “permitted for five months of study in the Republic of South Africa” I suddenly remembered what I have been working so hard for, what I have spent endless nights stressing about, what I will be preparing for all week: my dream. South Africa. It is real, it is happening; I have made it happen, and it is going to be FANTASTIC.