The Journey Before the Journey

11:20 PM

Since this is my first post, I want to describe myself and explain a little bit about where I am coming from. I was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and when I was five years old, I was adopted by two incredible parents into a family with 3 adopted children. My parents found out that I had a blood sister and as a result my mom returned to Cambodia to bring her home. Two years later, we were reunited and our family grew to consist of 7 people. I have lived in the same house since moving to college in the small tight-knit community of Bandon. As a child, I knew that I wanted to travel the world, to gain perspectives, to increase cultural awareness, the reasons seemed endless. In fact, one of the main motives for why I decided to come to the University of Oregon was because I had heard that you could study abroad as a sophomore (one of few colleges that lets you study abroad your second year). I had heard about various programs, attended numerous information sessions, and every time, I would create a justification for why I shouldn't go. It was too expensive, too dangerous for a female to travel, I was too young, I needed to stay on track, I thought of everything in the book possible. Then last year of my freshmen year, I decided to stay in Eugene and continue with classes. I was determined to graduate early, to take advantage of the easy summer classes and to work hard in my academics. That same summer, I came to understand a lot of things about myself and how self-disciplined I was, how structured my life was becoming. I made the conscious decision to let all of that go... All of the expectations about my future, the worry that was limiting me to so many opportunities, and the fear of losing people in my life that I loved so much by leaving. I promised myself that no matter where I was next summer that I would be out of the country. It honestly didn't matter where in the world I would be, as long as I was leaving America. A lot of things has changed since that day, but I kept that promise to myself. Now here I am, 8 days before I embark on an adventure to Beijing, China. A place that I never thought that I would be going to. It all started with saying yes. Yes to new beginnings, to new friends, and to new changes. So say yes to yourself because when one door closes, another one opens,