NYC --> Shanghai, 1 day!!! Goodnight Sweetheart, Now It's Time To Go...

September 9th, 2013. One day - in like, I leave tomorrow!

Right around the corner from our place. It's like the universe knows.

When I started this countdown mini-blog series 41 days ago, I'm not quite sure I fully comprehended that it would actually end (I certainly didn't think I'd manage to do it daily!) - that it would eventually get to zero, lift-off. Tonight, bags 95% packed, I'm in a bit of a daze: already missing my beloved City; feeling anxious about settling into a new one; and yet eagerly anticipating the utterly unknown of what's to come in the next six months. The first time I moved - anywhere - it was five days after September 11th, 2001. I was starting grad-school in Southern California, what then seemed like a world away from Miami. Just a few days shy of a decade later, I moved to NYC. Throughout those ten years, change - pivotal change - was a constant. The decade brought with it a PhD, a boyfriend (now fiance), two other moves (to DC and Boston), a thriving business, and a constant, now defining balancing act (read tug of war) between academia and practice - Fulbright being a case in point. Most importantly, that decade brought home the importance of place. There's no question that Miami - "Weh-che-steh" - shaped me; but it was the experience of living in such diverse places that helped me question who I thought I was, and break out of the mold I'd let my hometown create for me. The decision to change places - as hard as it was to do five days after the worst domestic terrorist attack this country has known - was instrumental to my development. I knew I wanted to change a place, Miami. But it ended up being so much bigger that that. It was through place, that I finally understood how big - and small - the world was. And the experience of this new place throughout the next six months will help me grow that much more both personally and professionally.

I want to take the time to thank each and everyone of you of who has counted down with me over the past 42 days! I hope you'll "join me" in Shanghai as well!

"Please don't forget to remember..."

Learn more about this blog series!

<<Read yesterday's mini blog