1 day, 8 hours, and 27 minutes.
In typical Jackie fashion, I’m evading the packing giant ahead of me to provide you, my generous reader, with an up-to-the-minute countdown of my daunting departure from cozy Chicago. This gesture is rather emblematic of the last few weeks. My schedule has gone something as follows: 11am wake up. 12pm eat Grapenuts. Put off exercising by rummaging around the internet. 3pm guilt myself into going for a run. 3:20 run concludes. 3:30 shower and put on real clothes. 4:00 daily meal. 5pm either get schlepped around by friends or take more time for internet. 11pm bedtime. Rinse and repeat.
Needless to say, traveling to the other side of the planet to volunteer for 10 months will be a bit of a shock to my system. Every so often, paranoia kicks in and I recognize how insane I am for undergoing such a venture. After all, I’m immigrating into a potential war zone, I have no long-term career plans, I live in constant fear of passing out, and I still need to reconsider my spelling of ‘desert’ each time to make sure I haven’t confused the word for its tasty alternative. I’ve yet to decide which of these is the greatest danger.
Still, once in a while I get a twinge of self-assurance that this is absolutely what I must be doing right now. Graduating college has allowed me to see my life a little more broadly than before. I don’t know precisely where I’m going, but I know that I want to go to the grave with as few regrets as possible, having actively experienced everything in my capacity and having given just a little bit more than what others gave to me. So I’m going to what I believe is the most important place in the world right now, and I’m spending my days learning, teaching, and building community. And there will be lots of Jews. Finally, cynicism and idealism on the same plate.
I can’t say I know where this Blog is going, but hopefully I’ll be slightly more pro-active about it than I was in Greece. I'm also hoping this can develop collaboratively, because I always feel inexcusably bad for writing about myself. Please read at your leisure, post bountiful comments, then go do something more interesting with your day!
