What Lies Ahead...

 It is 10PM Houston time (on Tuesday). 5AM in Paris. I’m drunk on sleep and carby plane food. Terrible combination. I hope this entry will be lucid…

So, while simultaneously lamenting the separation from my older sis and baby brother [Sidebar: He’s only 5 yrs younger than me but he will always be my baby. #mariahcarey] and the fact that I missed the boat tour of Paris due to the antics of CampusFrance (I want my time back. Thieves! Money ain’t s***. I’ll take a refund on August 28-31.), I started to think about what lies ahead. What will my host family be like? How will the classes be? Will it rain when I land? Will it rain a lot during my stay? Did I waste money on these suede boots? The really deep questions, you know?

The point is I’m a planner by nature. In fact, Five Star office supplies should hire me to revamp their inventory because this whole selling things in threes thing really irks me because I have four classes. I mean really though, what schools have 3 classes a semester? Anyways, back to planning. Planners like to be prepared. What am I preparing for? I don’t know. How can I prepare for this unidentified thing I’m trying to prepare for? I don’t know. What should I expect? Again, idk. I-D-freaking-K. Well it’s really just annoying cus now I have to be some sort of explorer or something (minus the pillage, enslaving, and small-pox infecting).

I bet a few of you are like, “Wow, JK, get over yourself. You’re going abroad. Just go and see.” If that is you, why thank you for that useless bit of advice. I did, however, receive a rather helpful string of words from my older sis’ bf. He said, “Have as much fun and be as serious as possible.” [Sidebar: Whether or not he actually said this remains unknown as my hearing is about as reliable as dollar store condoms.] As far as the advice goes, it pretty much reads: Get laid and get A’s. Okay, so maybe not the first part, but you get the general idea. I’m on both the pursuit of happiness (#kidcudi) and on the pursuit of excellence (#nokidcudi).

To cap off this late night/early morning rambling, I say to you, whether you’re studying at home, studying abroad, on your grind, or “finding yourself” (read: unemployed and not in school) you’re preparing for life. Except for you’re actually living it. Prepare to up your happiness game. Prepare to up your success game. Prepare to up your life game. There is nothing sadder than a LifeFAIL, whether it’s under the Tour Eiffel, the Astrodome, or that bridge where Andy is parading his “Let me not lie, I just want beer” sign. Bisous!

—Just Kisses, JK