Packing is almost complete! Above is nearly everything I’ll be taking for my 7 week journey… minus the cat, sadly. In case you are a fashionable prospective international traveler, here are tips on how to pack and a list of what I packed:

Tips:

-use hair ties as rubber bands around rolled clothes

-roll your clothes! 

– stuff as many rolled items as possible into shoes 

-pack undergarments and bikinis into a storage sized ziploc bag 

What I packed:

-3 pairs of pants: white, jeans, and palazzo 

-5 pairs of shorts: Jean, 2 white, black, navy 

-4 sundresses (2 of which can translate into night dresses): 2 black, 2 patterned 

-3 maxi skirts (wearing an additional one on the plane) 

-2 long sleeved sheer(ish) tops 

-2 dressier daytime tank tops

-2 cotton tank tops (1 white, 1 black)

-2 going out tank tops (bright colored) 

-3 versatile tops: 3 black, 1 white 

-2 kimonos (1 light, 1 dark) 

-2 pair spandex: 1 yoga fold over (sleep and lounge), 1 running Capri 

-1 running tank top 

-3 pairs of shoes: Sperry’s, platform wedges (Clark’s), running shoes (Nike Free Fit) (wearing Birkenstock’s on the plane) 

-1 rain jacket 

-2 scarves (1 plain, 1 patterned) 

-1 smaller cross body bag, 1 wristlet 

-bag of undergarments 

*Not pictured or included in list: toiletries, technology and necessities to be brought in purse, jewelry

It seems like it was just yesterday that it was September and I was saying a small first-day-of-school prayer to myself before meeting my brand new batch of 7th graders for the first time. The school year has blazed through my calendar like a fiery comet, leaving little more than an ashen trail of awe and admiration.  My students this year were one of the best groups of students I’ve encountered yet.  My home at Hughes Middle has been rooted and my experiences as an educator there have continued to blossom and bear fruit. Teaching brings with it uncountable joys, challenges, and rewards. I honestly don’t know who I’d be if I couldn’t say I was a teacher.  It has given me such purpose and continues to open my eyes to so many different perspectives, realities, and truths.  Traveling during my summers off is something that allows me to yes, recharge my battery, but to also deepen my personal narrative and to broaden my paradigm, so that I can come back to teach students about exploring their own narratives and broadening their own paradigms…or hey, what a paradigm even means! I decided to spend this summer backpacking abroad in January, as I felt I needed a trip that would challenge me physically and mentally.  It feels surreal that I am now in the month of which my journey begins. I feel excited, nervous, and slightly sad, because as the sun is rising on my adventure into the unknown, the sun is setting on a beautiful chapter in my teaching career.

Even though I’ve taught the same subject and grade level for the past four years, every year is so drastically different from the last, because the hours and days are determined by personalities.  Which reminds me of travel: even though the logistics of travel tend to be similar or the same, every trip is so drastically different from the last because the hours and days are determined by personalities- personalities of travel companions, of the people you encounter, and of the cities and towns you inhabit. And as I’ve learned with teaching, each one is different, unforgettable and defining.