I remember every year sitting down with my mom to watch the annual showing of the Wizard of Oz which typically came on TV around the Thanksgiving timeframe. I'd sit, me a wide-eyed little girl, watching intently as Dorothy went from the bland black and white world of her farm in Kansas and step into the vibrant, technicolored land of Oz.
I now find myself standing inside my own small house, turning round and round in the tornado, getting ready to step out into my own wonderful Land of Oz...
With my UK Visa and my airline ticket in hand, I'm getting ready to embark on the biggest adventure of my life. Strange characters and new surroundings at every turn, a world so different from the familiar life I have known my whole life.
Am I terrified? Heck yes I am!! Sometimes you hear something that just sticks with you for one reason or another and although now I don't even remember where I had heard it first, it was said that courage isn't the lack of fear but the ability to move forward even though you are afraid. I am definitely afraid of the uncertainty that lies ahead but I move forward excited by the new world that lies before me. I know that many people before me have taken much more adventurous steps in their journeys through life but this is my little piece of adventure that will lead me down the yellow brick road and hopefully one day to find my way back home. While I'm hoping this experience widens my gaze and allows me to change my perspective and grow as a person, I also hope that it allows me to appreciate the life I had here all along.
Saying goodbye to my friends and family will be the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life, particularly my mother who in so many ways really is my best friend. I take heart in the fact that I know that those that are closest to me will always be close to me even if we are geographically separated. And really what is geography in this day and age of technology? Everything is relative right...
So as I take the 4,600 mile trip to the UK (or as my new countrymen would say 7,500 kilometers), I will say goodbye to my friends and family, 300 days a year of sunshine, driving on the "right" side of the road, 24-hr Targets, great Mexican food, my beloved mountains, my 8 year old baby girl Lexus and countless other things but I will always remember....
There's no place like home...
