Taking Flight

The things that scare me are the things I crave the most.

Venturing across the world for an entire year is not excluded from this list. In a matter of days, I will be on a ten-hour flight to London, UK. Crazy right? All those months of browsing travel boards on Pinterest, brushing up on my British Literature, and thinking this is just some crazy dream I’m going to wake up from have flown by. I finally realize this study abroad thing is real—and it’s both absolutely exciting and terrifying.

When I board my plane in a couple days, I know it will change my life. Taking flight is not just a mode of transportation: it’s an act of crossing the threshold. By crossing it, I am promising myself to always live a full life. By crossing it, I recognize there’s no turning back. Mark Twain, put it best when he said:

“Twenty Years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Human beings are meant to “dream” to the heights of skyscrapers. They are meant to place themselves out of the “safe harbor.” Maybe that’s why the things that frighten me most are what I cling to, because they challenge me as the wind challenges the sails of a boat. The wind is good for me—it helps me set sail and take flight.

I don’t want to be the boat that never left the harbor, or the plane that never left the ground. I don’t want to miss the train of life. My dreams scare me and that’s okay. I’ve already purchased my ticket for life, and not letting it expire. Therefore, I will go to new places, expand my mind and experiences, and discover parts of myself I never knew existed. I have received the London call, and accept it.

Takeoff in three…two…one…London, here I come.

Keeping it Krischic,

Kristin