By Megan Hitchcock (University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia).
So I don’t even know where to begin… the last few weeks since finishing uni has been so crazy and now the day has finally arrived! It’s Wednesday 17th July and tonight my Australian adventure begins at Heathrow Terminal 5! As the last few weeks have been so busy, I’ve hardly had a chance to be worried, but I guess the only reservations I’ve had came at the weekend when I had to start saying my goodbyes. Although there were lots of tears and I realised how much I am going to miss everyone, coming through that has only made me realise just how much I want this. I woke up yesterday, my heart racing with excitement and today all I want is for 7.15pm to come and for my exciting journey to begin!
If you want any idea of how I’ve planned for this in the last few weeks this is pretty much what I’ve done:
– Made the most of every single second of UK summer that I’ve had – since finishing uni 4 weeks ago I’ve been on holiday with friends for a few days, gone to Glastonbury, had a friend visiting from Australia, worked for a week, had a 21st birthday party and so much more – I now feel like I have done everything I wanted to and am so ready for the next thing!
– Started packing early – it takes so much longer than you think planning to pack for a year and not just for a two week summer holiday! Not only deciding what to take but also fitting everything into the luggage restrictions has definitely been a major challenge!
– I’ve had a dentist appointment, a doctors appointment, been ‘shopping for the last time’ so many times as I keep missing things out and this morning I even had to run off to the bank to let them know I’m going to be away so that I can use my card out there – pretty important!
– Most importantly though, I’ve tried to make this as stress free as possible – I just want to enjoy every second of the experience!
Apart from the obvious worries about going to a new country – my luggage not making it, moving somewhere new and what it’s going to be like, I am just so excited, looking forward to a new challenge, meeting lots of new people and having so many new experiences! Bring on the next year!
Megan