That Scary/Electrifying/Mind-Numbing/Astonishing First Step

Hey All and Welcome!!
I'm a first time blogger, so please bear with me as I work to step up to this new learning curve (I might also be battling a severe case technology illiteracy).  As you may or may not have guessed from the title of this blog, I'm going to be spending some time in Italy in the very, very, VERY, near future.  As in tomorrow near.  Technically today depending on how you work the after midnight rule, but this is all trivial details.  I'm sure you're asking where in Italy I'm going and why.  Funny you're asking that because I just so happen to have an answer for you!  I will be in Florence, Italy for a semester of study abroad.  Yep, a semester.  A whole semester.  That's four whole months.  A third of a year.  It's not completely obvious that I'm freaking out about the duration of this experience, is it?
Actually, I'm freaking out about a lot of things, which is quite an unusual phenomenon for me.  As a type B personality, it takes quite a bit to really push me to the point of discomfort.  Really, I'm serious, ask my mother.  It drives her crazy and almost cost me this adventure, but that's another story for another day.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've been homesick and leaving home for a totally strange and unknown place is not an unfamiliar circumstance for me.  I'm finding that there are plenty of things to be concerned about in this case.  Like the food.  Sure, everyone warns you about the Freshmen 15, but knowing my ardent love for Italian food, the Foreign 40 is starting to sound like a real possibility.  What if my classes are taught in Italian???  Now that I think about it, I don't remember the course descriptions specifying whether a class was taught in Italian or English.  I'm praying to the merciful Lord above, who I believe to be quite a realiable guy considering he has successfully guided me through the past 21 years, which cannot be claimed as an easy feat (again, reference Karen Gormley on this one), that my classes are in English.  Please let them be in English!!  Speaking of the Big Guy Upstairs and being the Catholic loving girl that I am, will I be able to get anything out of the Mass if it's not said in English?  I'm guilty of daydreaming even in the midst of my native tongue.  What if the toothpaste tastes weird?  What if my luggage gets lost?  What if no one wants to be friends with the awkward kid who waited until her Senior year to study abroad?  How am I going to drink water without ice?  What am I going to do without all my friends and family?  What am I missing back at my home university?  What if all the clothes I just crammed into only two suitcases make me look like a class A dope?  What I can't sleep without my bear?  What if all my grand dreams don't come true?  Honestly, I think its the last question that makes me hesitate most of all.  I'm been planning and dreaming for so long and now its here and I have no idea what's actually going to happen or what to do with myself.  I'm OK with winging it, but this is so entirely new.  I jumped off a cliff once (into water, silly.  Who do you think I am?) and this moment reminds me of the that.  I'm here.  It took work, but I'm here.  I'm on that edge and every nerve in my body could probably serve as its own electricity source.  All you can do is stand there and look over the edge.  And even as you stand there, there's that little voice in the back of your head, saying, as snarky as can be, "You know, you still have to jump.  Standing here isn't going to change that.  Just go already."  Then, there's a couple false starts, a few moments of panic, finally the free fall.  And you hate and love every moment of it.  If you haven't caught on, I'm perched on that cliff, all over again.  There's a lot of peace and terror in this.  Don't ask me how that works, but that's what's going on.  We'll chalk it up to the fact that it's currently almost 2 in the morning.  I'm ready, but I'm not.  I want to see the change this is going to bring to my life, but I'm not sure I'm willing to accept all the change that is going to take place just yet.  I'm a walking hyperbole. 
With all this being said now, all that's left to do is put the last few touches of packing together, say a Hail Mary and get the show on the road!  But I'm real serious about that Hail Mary.  The last thing I need is to get there and realize I didn't pack any underwear.
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Crap, did I pack underwear?