One year ago: part 1

One year ago today we boarded the plane from Boston to Dublin, Ireland. Before we boarded I sat in one of the wooden rockers at Boston's Logan Airport and finally cried. All those months of waiting and packing and stressing and saying premature goodbyes had been building up.

When I went through security they took my half-empty tube of Arm and Hammer baking soda toothpaste 'for security reasons'. I said "are you kidding me? it's not full, it's under 6oz and I'll even test it for you!" This, combined with my desperate look, of course caused more suspicion, so everything had to undergo a thorough examination. That's when my eyes watered. While I managed to hold back the floodgates for a few minutes, inside I was screaming 'don't you understand?! you can't buy that in Germany! I can't even buy a box of baking soda to dip my toothbrush in! I'm leaving the land of baking soda toothpaste for a very long time, don't you know?!'

I know it was just symbolic of the whole letting-go process, but it was tough. My last phone call was from my friend, Emily, who'd seen a few tears earlier, but then she just got it all as I sat on that rocking chair trying to keep it together. There I was sniffing over a tube of toothpaste and trying to say goodbye.

I say this because that's certainly not how I thought the next chapter would start.