Months, weeks, days, and moments before my departure I had been asked the same question “are you excited?” I would tell people I was, but I was not. I was not excited. I was not happy. I was not nervous. I was not anything. The feeling was something that could not be processed or explained. It all seemed like a dream that I was going to be woken up from soon, so I would not allow myself to get worked up about it. It was all too good to be true. The only other time I had ever felt like this is right before I moved to Oregon. Opportunities like this do not happen for kids where I’m from. Everything about this trip was, and still is surreal.