Pre-departure checklist

I have a 10:55 flight out of Baltimore tomorrow morning. I have a  three and a half hour layover in Dallas, Texas. I have one suitcase and a backpack. Sometimes I worry that I didn't bring enough, but when I close the straining zipper it feels like I packed too much. Are five pairs of shoes too many for three months? Maybe I could run in my hiking boots or hike in my running shoes, but every time I take one pair out, I panic and shove it back in. I have three kinds of bug spray.

I have three years of high school Spanish, and a fear that I will not remember much of it.  I also have an outdated Spanish phrasebook with expressions such as "Do you sell analog cassettes?" and "Your fax is illegible."

I have never lived away from home for three months before, with the exception of college, which was close enough to my parents' house to justify driving home on the weekend to do laundry.  When I come back to the States, I will have one semester of college left. This feels so far away that it seems almost unreal. I imagine that my first few days in the home base will feel something like college. I will live with a bunch of strangers and sleep in a bunk bed. I will say my name a million times as I meet new people and try to remember their names.

But instead of having new classes and teachers, I will have students of my own. I will have 10 children between the ages of three and five, and three months to teach them English and hopefully make some sort of impression on their lives that will persist after I am gone.

I have a very good feeling about this, but I also have butterflies in my stomach. I have 19 hours to go.