"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it."

Journal entry from July 20, 2012:

  "I can tell you confidently, that I am not and never will be the person I was a year ago. But I can also tell you that a year from now I wont be the person I am today. Who knows where life will take me, who I will meet, who will be lost along the way, what I will have accomplished, or what I may regret. Today is my sixteenth birthday, and as of right now, at 4:25 in the morning I am feeling on top of the world. I have a year of new memories, new friends, and a new culture to look forward too. I have a chance to have the best of both worlds, a chance to move and begin with a clean slate, without losing what has now become my old life. This is the year I have been waiting for my entire life, and I know it will be unlike any other experience thus far. Unlike the past 15 years, where I have let my life live me, I will begin to live my life, fully. I will enjoy every second of every minute of my year abroad in Spain, I will soak in the laughter, and treasure every moment. I have so much to learn, and maybe that’s just it. I have spent the last 15 years acting like I know everything there is to know, and that is obviously not the case. I will open my mind and heart, to all the possibilities, all the ideas that I so quickly shut my door on. I let opportunities pass by, people walk away, and the moments slip, without thinking how it could impact my future, solely thinking with the past and present in mind. I lived with regrets, which burdened me constantly, as I was so often filled with remorse. I will forgive, because life is too short to let that weigh you down. I will move on, and remember that the past is the past, and the only thing we can control is the future. And finally, I will be happy. I have the rest of my life ahead of me; there is nothing more to ask for. So here’s to another year, a new adventure, a new beginning. "

I often find myself looking back on this journal entry that I wrote just about two months before I left. I remember the morning, I wrote it not knowing what the future held, yet with an open mind. The way I felt in that moment, knowing I was on the verge of living my dream. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, but at the same time I had no idea where I would end up. The only thing I knew for sure was that I could do it. These past two months have been unbelievably confusing, exciting, awkward, amazing, but more than anything unforgettable. And there have been more times than not where I have not been sure of myself. But looking back on this one moment helps me remember how and why I am doing this. No one said following your dreams was easy, but they did say it was worth it. I wrote this laying in my bed in America, dreaming of everything and anything possible. Now four months later, and I'm living it.