Buzz, excitement, anticipation, adventure – such words have been the cornerstones of our vocabulary.

But one feeling that has crept slowly this final week – seeming to leak in between the tiny cracks in my crammed schedule – has been disorientation.  It is a curious mix of confusion (is everything going to change?), sadness (the departure of the familiar), even doubt (am I ready for this?).

I am still reeling from uprooting myself from the Bay Area and a network of friends 6 years in the making, from California and my family, from a 2-year stint with my first and only post-college employer.  Seattle simply never became “home” – 2 mere months in the haze of double jobs and a jarring low-budget lifestyle.

It all reminds me of the slow ascent up a roller coaster: excited chatter with the friends beside you, heart racing with anticipation, the slow metallic clicking as your feet leave the platform to hang in that intermediary space between the stable ground and the screaming ride.

So it is with a mix of emotions that I approach the end of that ascent.  In less than 6 hours, we will step down off the plane and start that descent.