Scrambling Until the Very End

It has hard to believe that I actually started "preparing" for London in May 2008 when I flew back to the U.S. to interview with the district scholarship committee. And today, 17 months later, I am actually leaving. Needless to say the time between these two events hasn't been always been so fluid and seamless but right now I am ready to embark on this next step in life.

I will spare my two readers the tireless details of applying to graduate school, re-locating (twice) and going through the process of saying good-bye. Only one event really sticks out in my mind as worth sharing- the dreadful visa process. My American passport was going to expire while I would be in London so I had to get a new passport. However because I was going to be traveling internationally I had to wait until I returned from Israel to apply. I needed to time the whole process perfectly- so having learned from Teach For America the art of backwards planning I mapped out the entire process of applying for a passport and visa. I knew it would be tight but there was no alternative. The first challenge was that my family was going on a cruise in honor of my mom's 60th birthday exactly 2.5 weeks after I sent my passport to get renewed. So I sent it overnight and crossed my fingers, hoping it would return in time.

Thanks to great customer service at U.S. institutions, it arrived in the nick of time and the family was off on a great cruise to the Bahamas and Mexico. (Aside- We got off the boat at Nassau, Bahamas and greeting us was a sign with the Rotary Wheel and their meeting schedule.... truly a worldwide organization!). During the previous month I had been preparing for the visa process which is quite possibly the most intensive background check possible- transcripts, visa letters, offer letters, bank statements, pictures, and the promise of your first born (just kidding). The Monday after we returned from the cruise I was off to get finger printed, kissed my massive envelope of important documents and sent it off to the UK Consulate in Chicago. I had four week until my scheduled flight on Saturday Sept 12th.

By Thursday Sept 10th I had still not heard anything and was ready to call United to see if it would be possible to change my flight. To my surprise a pleasant woman with a strong British accent called Friday morning to assure me that she had just completed approving my application and that the visa would be printed and should arrive in Minneapolis by Friday afternoon, the day before my scheduled flight.

Unfortunately I had missed that famous brown van known as the UPS guy Friday afternoon and was scrambling to find out where my package was located and how to get it before UPS shuts down for the weekend (Another aside- UPS asks "What can BROWN do for you?" how about staying open every day?! just a thought!). Turns out the van carrying my package would be back at the Maple Grove center at 7 pm, one hour before they close. I rushed there and made it 20 minutes before the center closed, frantically opened the package to ensure it was actually MY passport with a UK visa in it. It was in fact mine and at that moment a month's worth of stress and anticipation melted away.

So in a few short hours I am off to London via Chicago to begin this next amazing chapter in my life. Now that the bags are packed, my passport is at hand and my mile-long-to-do list has dwindled, I feel totally at peace. I know there will be bumps along the way but having gotten this far, I am also confident that it all works out... somehow.