Tomorrow: Final Day of the voyage

Tomorrow is day 105. It's the final day of this epic voyage. It's so
hard to believe. I never thought it would be possible to experience
and achieve all I did in 105 days. It's overwhelming. Since Japan I've
been distracted with finals and schoolwork. As of yesterday at noon, I
completed my last final. I am done with junior year. Next time I'm in
school I'll be a senior. WHAT! Enough of that crazy talk. Can't think
about that quite yet.

So its 10:20 PM over here, our bags have to be packed by noon
tomorrow. Have I started packing? Nope. Whoops. Tonight's going to be
a long night. Everyone on the ship is walking around with maps, asking
friends to sign on an image so familiar to us but means so much more
to us than it ever had before. We just circumnavigated the world. We
did it. In one day we will be in California. In the USA. It's a hard
thing to digest. There have been seminars and talks going on in the
union all day about how to adjust back home, how to deal with reverse
culture shock, how to deal with the frustrations of everyone being so
consumed by technology once again when we spent 3 and a half months
with almost none, and were able to feel more connected than ever
because of that.

What an adjustment it will be. Going from this crazy, unreal, insanely
unique life to going back to life back home. I'm fortunate I get to
ease into it/kind of skip it. I'm going to have an internship in Los
Angeles from May 19-July 29 and I'll be chilling in California from
May 2 until my internship begins. My Dad and Uncle are coming May 2nd,
to see us pull into dock! I'm so excited to see my Dad! They'll be
sticking around San Diego until May 5. After that I don't have plans.
I'll be exploring San Diego/California for a couple weeks. I'm so
excited! I have no plans! A lot of SAS kids are doing the same thing
and are sticking around California for a bit. I met quite a people who
live in California as well, so I'll be hanging out with a bunch of
different people. I'm excited that I get to have what I call a next
port. Life in California will be extremely different from upstate NY
life, so it'll almost be like a different country in some aspects. One
of my best friends, Julianne, is going to be living with me in LA and
will have an internship as well. I'm so excited to have many
adventures with her and to live with her for the first time since
freshmen year! A lot of exciting things ahead, even though this
voyage is coming to an end.

My thoughts about this voyage ending are summed up pretty well in a
Dr. Seuss quote that I love and was in the Dean's Memo (daily email we
get) today. It goes like this: Don't be sad its over, be happy it
happened. That's how I feel mostly! It definitely is incredibly
bittersweet, but to focus on the sadness of it being over is not
right. This was 3 and a half months-so long! And its such a blessing
and privilege to have such a long time to travel and explore the
world! If it was longer, I wouldn't be able to appreciate it as much.
It was already becoming too normal to wake up, look out my window and
say "Oh hey there Hong Kong." Such a crazy life! It's sad to leave
friends, but I'll see a lot of them in San Diego for a week, and a lot
of them live in California so I'll be able to visit during the summer.
I also would say that for the most part I did not make as crazy close
connections with individuals on the ship as I did back at Ithaca and
back home. A lot of this has to do with being on a ship with 600
people, where it makes individual bonding difficult, as everything is
really a group hangout. I'm relieved I didn't make friendships with
people that tore me apart to leave, like I think I would feel like if
I met some of my Ithaca friends on the ship and they left forever. So
anyways, I would say I have just about the perfect attitude about the
voyage coming to end. I feel that it is very bittersweet, but I knew
it would be that way, and I was prepared for it, so I'm not going
through shock..at least yet. I feel so grateful for every single
amazing moment I had on this voyage, and I think it was exactly the
perfect length. I have no regrets, and I just feel so blessed with how
everything worked out, how I changed, the lessons I learned, the
people who touched my life, and the roller-coasters I went through,
that made me who I am today.

So finals ended yesterday and we celebrated our voyage by having an
Alumni Ball. We all got dressed up and watched a movie that Ryan, a
student made. I got to say a line in India in the movie. The ship
photographer also made a slideshow. It was wonderful and emotional to
watch both. We then headed into the dining hall which was transformed
and was decorated beautifully. We were served a delicious dinner and I
had such an amazing time, reminiscing about our favorite moments, and
when we first met each other. We then had a dessert buffet and then
headed up to the 7th deck for a dance party! We danced as the wind
blew through our hair and sang our hearts out for one last time on the
ship. It was a wonderful night.

I didn't get a chance to write about China, Japan or Hawaii yet. They
were all amazing, and I will write about them when I get time in
California. Tomorrow is convocation. It will be quite an emotional
day. The following day we leave the ship and greet our parents! It's
going to be a crazy next couple of days, with little sleep and lots of
emotion!

Feel free to call or text or facebook me as of May 2nd! I will finally
be able to be contacted in other ways than email once again!

California, here I come!