There's a change in the Wind

It's getting closer and closer to that day with every hour that passes. Three weeks from this moment I should be at my first stop, somewhere halfway between the place I've always called home and an open Texan frontier. Twenty-one days. Five hundred and four hours. Thirty thousand, two hundred and forty minutes, give or take a few...

Every day I feel more distant from everything that surrounds me. In my mind I've all ready taken the first step on the road. I have very little interest in anything school related, and I can really feel it just slipping out of my fingers; I don't even care anymore. It's not like it's been easy, or difficult for that matter, but I just need it to be over. Unfortunately there is still another year to go.

The box arrived and it fits beautifully into the back of the Jeep. It even seems to be larger than I had thought that it was going to be. I ordered a new top for the Jeep because the old one is pretty crappy and messed up; it looks like the last owner failed to take very good care of it. I guess they just didn't understand what a great thing they had. It's been driving really well lately, though. Almost like a dream. I can't wait to get out onto the open road and just soar through the countryside.

I still have some work to do with my 4x5 before I leave to make sure that it's working the way it should. I also have to talk to the head of the photography department about some things to make sure that I can take advantage of everything that I have on hand. Nothing too major though, I just want to make sure I can make the best of the opportunity I have been given.

Finishing up projects and going to class are pretty much going to take up the rest of my time until the end of the semester, and I have two more papers that I'll be doing before Monday, but that shouldn't be too difficult. It's not even like I'm interested in my grades, I just want to leave.

The last few weeks I've been throwing around the idea that I wouldn't come back once my trip was done. It was mostly just a joke, see how people would react, see what it would be like to actually be gone. It was all just harmless fun for me, but then for the first time today, I actually thought about it. I let the thought manifest in my head and whirl around between thoughts of Lego men and early North American art. Would it be so bad to have the chance to start over? To be able to walk down the street and be able to honestly say I have nothing except for the new experiences that I am going to have? It's only the single greatest thing that I thought could ever happen. Would I miss my family? Probably for a little while until I just stopped thinking about them. Would I miss my friends? Of course, but even they, too, would eventually slip themselves from my thoughts.

It wouldn't be so bad, would it?