D-10: I can’t keep my mind on anything. The only thing that keeps on coming back to my thoughts is Tokyo. I know, by experience, that this excitement is going to be replaced by anxiety a few hours before departing.
D-8: I could not stop myself. I had to start packing.
D-3: Last time I am seeing my friends before leaving. They also have to go back to their universities and lives, summer is over. It is so nice to see that we all started at the same point and now we are studying all over France, Europe and the world.
D-1: It just feels like I’m never going to leave, altought my flight is tomorrow morning. No stress, just the sea, the sun and the beach.
T-10: I can’t even seat down to eat dinner. I am so stressed about leaving now that I need to move or to watch stupid tv shows to keep my mind off thinking. I know I won’t sleep tonight.
T-2: I might have slept an hour overall. I don’t know why I can never sleep the night before leaving home, either of excitement or fear. Tonight was full of fears.
T-0:30: At the airport with my family, all the fears have left my body. I would not say I am excited, but at least I will be able to sleep through the flight thanks to this amazing night of sleep.
In between flights: I am so tired, I can’t wait get in the transcontinental airplane. So that I can start a movie and fall asleep.
it is not the first time I travel by myself and move out far from home. I know every step of this routine. I think I have the chance and bad luck, at the same time, to jot be able to imagine the future. It keeps me away from being anxious until I am so close that I can feel it.
Un Voyage à l'Autre Bout du Monde: A Trip to the Other Side of the Globe 