5 Days until my Journey begins

I can't believe the time is almost here where Alyson and I will be boarding the plane to fly across the ocean into the beautiful country of Italy for two months.  A lot of mixed emotions going through my head, mostly that of excitement to venture away from home and experience something that not everyone gets the opportunity to do.  I feel extremely lucky and blessed to be able to go on this trip with my little sister and (hopefully) make our bond stronger as we both go outside of our comfort zone into a whole new country and journey to places we've only seen pictures of and read about in our history books.  I have never truly been away from home and away from my family, however, I think this journey will allow me to really discover who I am and put me outside of my "safe zone" in Canton, Ohio and really realize life outside of Canton...outside of Ohio...and outside of the United States.  I wanted to keep a blog of this trip to share my experiences to my friends and family throughout these next two months.  I am excited and nervous and anxious to pack up and leave a place I have never truly been away from, to go away from my mother who I have never been separated from for more than a week (at most!) to be away from my father, my 4 siblings, my 2 nieces, my grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course my friends. I am going to dive into this experience and soak it in because before I know it, it will be December 10th and I will be boarding the plane yet again to return home.