„Are you almost ready?“ I heard my mom’s voice from the doorframe. I didn’t want to look up because she would see the tears in my eyes and that would only make her sad too. So I just kept my head down, stuffed the last of my things into my oversized pink suitcase, and mumbled „Yes, I’ll be there in a minute.“ I was sure that I had forgotten something important but it wasn’t like I was leaving for the Australian Outback. I should be able to buy everything that I might have left behind on my first day of being there. I sighed loudly as I pulled the zipper shut, probably too loud. „What’s up sweetie? Are you ok? Do you need anything else, you know we still have time to go to the store tomorrow. Your flight doesn’t leave until 4.“ I knew that, and I had thought about all the things that could go wrong until 4 in the afternoon. Our car could break down in the middle of the highway or I could forget my passport on my nightstand and miss my flight or the University could call and tell me that they had made a mistake with my admission and that I couldn’t start my Master’s degree next semester. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to go at all, it was just that right now, I didn’t want to think about it. An that was getting pretty hard with the flight coming closer each minute. „I’m ok mom, don’t worry.“ That came out harsher than I intended it to be. I knew she felt guilty because she kind of made me go. Well she didn’t really make me but i fit wasn’t for her constant reminding me how much fun I would have living abroad and how much I would learn and that it had given her so much, I would have probably not even considered leaving the comfort of my home and the city that I knew so well. „Alright Emma, just come downstairs when you are done, so we can have dinner all together and we can give you the presents.“ Of course there were going to be presents. I knew my mom better than to think that she would ship me off to Germany without giving me a thousand gifts for my aunt and uncle and cousins and maybe one for myself as well. It was probably loads of food and stuff like that. I never quite understood why anyone would want American food, especially after trying the delicious bread and chocolate in Germany, but each time we came, the entire family would gather and wait for us to bring Pop Tarts and Oreo cookies and cake mixes and they would look like children at Christmas. I heaved my suitcase in an upright position and grabbed my phone from my night stand. There was a message from my best friend Vicky and one from my boyfriend Joey, both of which were supposed to be here by now to celebrate my last night at home. As usual they were both late, but I wasn’t mad at them. They were my two best friends in the whole world and there was no way I was going to let their being late ruin this evening.
It was a perfect good bye dinner, even though I could feel my mom and Vicky stare at me the entire time and every time I glanced over to them I could see them lower their eyes and wipe their cheeks. It wasn’t fair that they got to cry and I was supposed to be excited to be leaving. I really wanted to spend my last night alone with Joey but in the other hand he would probably come and visit me before Vicky ever saved up enough money after tuition and housing and all that stuff so I was ok with both of them spending the night in my tiny little room. I couldn’t sleep at all, so we kept on talking the whole time about high school, and the last vacation we took together to Walt Disney World. I sincerely wished the night would never end but even though Disney taught us otherwise, dreams didn’t always come true and soon enough I heard a soft knock on the door and heard dad’s voice „Rise and shine sweetie, today is the day that is going to change your life forever“. Not in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined how true this was.