After almost three years attempting to explain my program to other people and describing the 8-month placement I would do "in fourth year", to which the response was always something like "Wow, that sounds like an incredible opportunity!", it is finally this year! And now, the process really begins.
First the calm before the storm, then the anticipation of finding out where my placement is, and the expected wave of emotions once the word is out, everything from excitement to fear to incredulity to awe to disbelief to relief, then the preparation, with likely more than a few unexpected bumps along the way, and eventually the once-in-a-lifetime experience itself.
And I will be documenting this entire journey every step of the way with this blog.
This is my first attempt at writing a blog and sharing my ideas in this medium. While I have always enjoyed writing things down, it is usually on paper and often just for the act of writing itself, or simply recounting what I did that day, detail by detail. In any case, I typically leave out much of my thoughts, feelings and opinions. Even in classes or in social situations, I prefer to keep my opinions and thoughts to myself. But now, here they are, being broadcast to the world, and permanently stored in cyberspace for anyone to see and find without even looking.
So, while I share a collection of my thoughts, ideas, questions and experiences in this blog as I prepare for and eventually embark on my eight-month overseas field placement in September 2013, I encourage you to follow along in my journey. As I am by no means an expert in any of the topics I will be writing on, I encourage feedback, opinions, questions, comments and insights from those of you reading. I hope to learn from you just as much as you might learn from me.