I should be more excited.
In about 24 hours we will arrive at DIA and board a plane to San Diego. I've been thinking about this day for 2 years, and seriously planning it for over half that. I'm still a bit stunned at just how much work it has been to prepare for this. I didn't anticipate the amount of time it would take me to get my personal and professional effects in order, and I am pretty certain that stress has replaced a good deal of the enthusiasm that I should be feeling. Stress is big right now - I'm completely packed, but Karen isn't. I know she will pull it off - she always does - but it's stressful watching her. But as usual she's happy as a clam and jabbering away as she puts things in her bags, and that always makes me smile.
I believe this will all change tomorrow. Once Aspen picks us up and we start heading to the airport, I can mentally disconnect from "getting ready" and focus on what lies ahead. I haven't truly had a chance to fully entertain what I will be doing this spring. I'm ready to teach my first few classes, but haven't thought much past that. We've signed up for as many trips as we could squish into our schedule, but I haven't had a chance to daydream about what might actually transpire. And that's OK.
One thing I've learned as a professor is that traveling and teaching have some similarities for me. I've found that the best trips, and the best classes, are not fully scripted. The trips I've enjoyed the most, and the classes that have connected best with the students, are the ones where I've done enough planning to ensure I will get off to a good start, and then I just let the rest happen. Well, I definitely haven't overplanned anything thus far, in terms of classroom planning and in-port traveling.
The other thing that it's taken some time for me to figure out is that I would rather "do" then "see". I'm just not all that enamored by sight-seeing. Never have been. I love to do things. A good example is our plan for China. Seeing the Great Wall is cool, and something most visitors to China want to check off there list. I would like to check it off the list too, but to me a checklist approach to traveling feels "meh". However, we found an option where we can hike along the Great Wall for 4 days and stay in towns along the way, and that sounds fantastic to me! Yes, it will be winter, and it will be cold and maybe snowy, but it's my kind of travel. I'm not good with relaxing travel, something my daughter shakes her head at. Luckily for me I have a wife who can't relax either. We know we drive our kids nuts because we suck at relaxing, but hope they don't think we are too weird.
See you later winter. I'm not sad to say goodbye to that. Our cat, Fatty Patty, and our old dogs? That's a different story. Our kids? Well that's by far the toughest part.
In about 24 hours we will arrive at DIA and board a plane to San Diego. I've been thinking about this day for 2 years, and seriously planning it for over half that. I'm still a bit stunned at just how much work it has been to prepare for this. I didn't anticipate the amount of time it would take me to get my personal and professional effects in order, and I am pretty certain that stress has replaced a good deal of the enthusiasm that I should be feeling. Stress is big right now - I'm completely packed, but Karen isn't. I know she will pull it off - she always does - but it's stressful watching her. But as usual she's happy as a clam and jabbering away as she puts things in her bags, and that always makes me smile.
Karen's Stuff Stressing Me Out
I believe this will all change tomorrow. Once Aspen picks us up and we start heading to the airport, I can mentally disconnect from "getting ready" and focus on what lies ahead. I haven't truly had a chance to fully entertain what I will be doing this spring. I'm ready to teach my first few classes, but haven't thought much past that. We've signed up for as many trips as we could squish into our schedule, but I haven't had a chance to daydream about what might actually transpire. And that's OK.
One thing I've learned as a professor is that traveling and teaching have some similarities for me. I've found that the best trips, and the best classes, are not fully scripted. The trips I've enjoyed the most, and the classes that have connected best with the students, are the ones where I've done enough planning to ensure I will get off to a good start, and then I just let the rest happen. Well, I definitely haven't overplanned anything thus far, in terms of classroom planning and in-port traveling.
The other thing that it's taken some time for me to figure out is that I would rather "do" then "see". I'm just not all that enamored by sight-seeing. Never have been. I love to do things. A good example is our plan for China. Seeing the Great Wall is cool, and something most visitors to China want to check off there list. I would like to check it off the list too, but to me a checklist approach to traveling feels "meh". However, we found an option where we can hike along the Great Wall for 4 days and stay in towns along the way, and that sounds fantastic to me! Yes, it will be winter, and it will be cold and maybe snowy, but it's my kind of travel. I'm not good with relaxing travel, something my daughter shakes her head at. Luckily for me I have a wife who can't relax either. We know we drive our kids nuts because we suck at relaxing, but hope they don't think we are too weird.
See you later winter. I'm not sad to say goodbye to that. Our cat, Fatty Patty, and our old dogs? That's a different story. Our kids? Well that's by far the toughest part.
Bon voyage! I can so relate to the 'not being that excited.' It will hit you once you're on the ship. I'm now where you were about 4 or 5 weeks ago in terms of preparing to leave - but at least I don't have any conferences or holidays to take up my time this month. Still, I feel that sense of 'what have I gotten myself into?' Anyway, all we can do is roll with it (for you, literally, on the waves) and enjoy!
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