Excited and Scared

I found myself inadvertently quoting Sondheim tonight, telling someone that I was "excited.  Well, excited and scared."

Right now, I'm ready to stop counting down toward leaving and to start counting down toward being with Pete again.  I'm excited to start a new adventure, to have new experiences, new projects, and a new set of stories to live.  But I'm scared for those same things, and for leaving my life here behind.  I've been lucky to have a great graduate school experience.  I had a great department, great advisors, great friends, and great family to support me.  More than anything, I have a great husband.

We went to a wedding yesterday, and I was thinking about how when we got married we knew this would be one of our challenges.  I work in a field where it's incredibly hard to get a job, and near impossible to dictate where you end up.  It's a near necessity to do a post-doc somewhere, and since this is a temporary position, it doesn't make sense for Pete to move too.  So that's why we're doing what we're doing.  Knowing that tomorrow is coming isn't going to make things easier.  I'm sure leaving my house and Sophie will be hard ... I know when Pete leaves the airport it will be hard.  But in around 24 hours, I'll be landing in Spain and starting a new, crazy adventure.  There will be good days and bad days, and I'm sure I'll spend a lot of the next few months being excited ... and scared.

I think in the long run, though, this will be good for me (and for us).  Hopefully, this will pay off with better job opportunities for me and some great travel opportunities for Pete and I over the next few months!

I think my next update will likely be in Spain - possibly at the Madrid airport during my layover.  Until then, I'm hoping for easy, safe travels (and alleviation of these cold symptoms I have!!).