Well, I'm getting ready for bed. It's my last night at ONU until next year. It's an odd thing to think about. I'm so excited to go to Italy, I want to be reborn there. I was looking at a tree, watching the leaves fall from it a few weeks ago, and it occured to be that I was doing the same thing. I was dropping my leaves, shedding my skin this fall. This winter I will burrow in at home, then in January I will be born anew. The spring will bring rebirth. Wonderfully enough in the same place where there was a rebirth of culture and art-Florence. It's all so fitting, so beautiful. I'm so nervous about leaving, so excited, and also so sad. I'm sad to leave all of my loved ones behind, my lovely friends and family. It's strange to think that everyone's lives will develope here, without me being able to participate and experience things with everyone, to grow with them. Of course I'll change and grow, but it's like I'm going on a pilgrimage; I'm going so far away and will have such little contact with everyone, and because of all of the things I will be experiencing, it's like I will be in a different world. It's all so hard to grasp still, but every day I can taste it more and more. Right now though, I'm just waiting. Missing my friends already, excited to leave, I'm in a strange place.
