La Réunion: A Good Journey answers questions you didn't know to ask.

So the countdown is at 11 days. Here is what I know about my future in Réunion so far...it is a tiny island off the coast of Madagascar. The flight there is 20 hours long... I'm teaching English to French elementary school children in the capital, Saint-Denis. I have a ride from the airport and a place to stay for the first week or so until I can find something to rent. And that's about it.

Oh, and the island is beautiful...

So why am I completely terrified all of a sudden? I have picked up and moved across the world multiple other times, but I have not been this scared before. Is it because I am starting to have a life here in Texas, and it's not as easy to just pick up and catch the next plane out of here? Is it because I have no guarantee of a future past May 2012? Is it because my life here suddenly fell apart in the last week...my dog is staying with this friend, and my furniture is staying with this friend, and do I sell my car or leave it with that friend...and pow! just like that...i'm homeless! Or maybe am I just getting to the point in my life where I am ready to settle down in one place...have a career and a family...and move on to the next chapter? 

Regardless, this trip is a required stepping stone for anything I want for my future. I need to live over there in order to become completely fluent and confident in my ability to speak French...which is necessary to have any kind of job using the language back here in the States. And plus...maybe it is a good time to take a little pause from the way things are right now. To gain new perspective and focus... to identify what is real and what really matters to me.

So. Everything is going to be okay. I just gotta get through the next 11 days of packing and organizing and planning and saying goodbye...