end of summer

The comics this past weekend were all about summer ending. It's not a super funny topic, although this year I thought I'd be less nostalgic since I don't have to go back to school. (And since September, so far, has been 80 degrees and sunny).

But today, I got really sad about summer ending because it means my two internships are ending, too. I guess this sadness means that both internships were extremely valuable and that I learned a ton -- otherwise I'd be cheering as I walked out the door. But I'm sad. I'll miss both experiences -- and, also, I think, the security of having two internships, the relative security of knowing I was off the job search for a while and could relax and learn. What I did learn: that I want to pursue a career in publishing as either an editor or agent! Love it!

But the reason I'm leaving these internships is actually really exciting.

Drumroll.

I'm giving my two week's notice at work this Friday and then flying to Asia for a two month trip to China and Nepal. I am SO thrilled. I'll be seeing Beijing and Shanghai (the Great Wall! Forbidden City! Terracotta Soldiers!) for a couple weeks, then working in an orphanage in Kathmandu with my best friend. Maybe doing some trekking in the Himalayas, too. It's the post-college trip I've dreamed about for my whole life: we're just bringing backpacks, we're staying in hostels and traveling cheap, and we're seeing a vastly different part of the world.

The Great Wall (from Wikipedia)

Kathmandu (photo credit)

Still, there's something slightly terrifying about quitting a good job and leaving two wonderful internships for the world beyond. Terrifying in a good way. A fragment from a favorite poem (by Paula Meehan, Irish poet, taken from Liminal, part of the series Six Sycamores):

I've always loved thresholds, the stepping over,

the shapechanging that can happen when

you jump off the edge into pure breath 

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