I was lucky enough to have a going away party thanks to the generosity of my friend Abigail who decided to host. There was a lot of amazing food, friends, and tequila.

Here’s 5 things that happened:

1. Ask and you shall receive. Before my party I put out a call for silica gel packets – you know, those little white packets that come inside shoe boxes, purses and wallets. I used to throw them away until I stumbled upon an amazing article that showed me how helpful they could be backpacking and suddenly, I couldn’t have enough. One of my friends was able to steal them from a stack of promotional backpacks at her office, and another was able to grab a bunch from his engineering gig (industrial strength). These will be my saving grace – I only wish I had them last year in Southeast Asia when everything became so musty thanks to the humid weather.

2. You will get emotional whether you want to or not. I’m not a fan of public displays of emotion, but as I was saying goodbye to a friend whose wedding I will be missing while I’m away I was unexpectedly hit with all of the feels – and hit hard. Damn the tear-inducing combination of tequila and hugs.

3. Your friends will get emotional whether they want to or not. Not all of them, but there will always be at least one that gets a punch in the gut too.

4. People will come who you haven’t seen in forever – and it will be awesome. I wasn’t expecting a couple of friends from my first floor dorm in university to show up – but when they did it was like Christmas morning. It was such a great surprise and an amazing way to catch up. It’s also a testament to those friends who you haven’t seen in months but can talk and hang with like you saw them yesterday.

5. You will never feel more sure about your choice. Making the decision to take this year off wasn’t easy and has come with more emotional ups and downs than I ever thought. I’ve never felt as calm and sure in my decision as I was in that moment, being surrounded by people who care about me and support what I’m doing.

Bonus: Going away parties are sometimes odd – because you haven’t done anything yet, so there aren’t any great stories to tell, despite the attention being on you. So I can only hope I do all of my friends and family justice on this trip and have amazing stories once I’m back.

 

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