One week to go

Today it has finally started to hit me that I will be leaving the country in a week from today. It's one thing to talk about my upcoming trip, and I've enjoyed sharing about all the exciting opportunities that are to come, but it's another thing to actually have my brain register that "yes indeed, you are going to be away for the next three months and there's no turning back".

So I'm scared to go--scared of getting lost; of being lonely; of getting sick or hurt; of not being able to communicate in another language; of seeing pain and poverty and not being able to make things better; of feeling useless and incompetent in my work there. But I know that there are so many positive experiences that await me, and I need to try to focus on those--of helping people, making new friends, learning about medicine, seeing beautiful landscape, learning about a culture through first-hand experience, and living my faith through what I do. It is my hope that this list of positives continues to grow, and the negatives begin to diminish. As much as I'd like to convince myself that all will go well, I know that I will be challenged and will need to persevere through the difficult times. People keep telling me to trust in God, and I sure hope this is enough, because at this point my options are limited!