Here are some of the things I did before leaving my country for Chicago: I got a student visa, took care of immunizations as required, signed a considerable loan, found an apartment in Chicago, signed the apartment lease, opened a US bank-account, sorted out technicalities with my previous bank, transferred all my money to the new account, bought a plane ticket for the US, co-organized a shipment to the US, signed up for Zipcar (a flexible car-rental service in the US), signed up for a school-organized trip to an exotic destination, researched and chose a US health-insurance plan, packed most of my belongings into 2 suitcases. And again, this is just a partial list!
I also held a farewell party. It was scheduled for Friday afternoon at a local bar, shaped and styled like your best-friend's apartment. I invited all my close acquaintances, and almost all of them showed up. Even a few people I hadn't invited showed up. At one point, I just stood there and watched everyone as they were going about their mingling and their drinking and their laughing. It suddenly felt very symbolic to have all those people who "survived" with me through the different chapters of my life so far, in what seemed at the time like the line between my previous life and my new life. I liked it and hated it at the same time.
Old life, new life – it might sound dramatic, but since I've never taken a step of this magnitude before, that's how it felt to me. As I said in my previous post, the entire experience had a pleasant feeling of reinventing myself. A friend who was about to take that journey with me said something which perfectly described it: "you get to be as much of you as possible. When you're here, with people who know you and in places you grew up in, you're carrying your entire past on your shoulders. But once you get there you'll be an entirely new David. And this David can be whoever you want him to be."
It's hard to describe how it felt on the last day at home. It was somewhat surreal: listening to my aunt break into tears over the phone, having a quieter-than-usual lunch with my parents, chatting with my brother about dilemmas regarding his own future. It was like waiting for a pre-known verdict. At the airport I told my family they should be happy for me because it was all an amazing thing, one of the best that could have happened to me. They just smiled, hardly comforted by that knowledge.
As the plane was taking off, that thrill I occasionally felt during the previous days disappeared. Trying to look into my future, I only saw a blur, and it got me into an almost apathetic state. The only thing I did feel was a mixture of anticipation and nostalgia - I was anxious to meet that new 2010-David, but at the same time, I was a little disappointed to leave all the other Davids behind.
