Is everything packed? My travel money, my documents, passport, teaching books, bug spray? What about visas? Am I set or have I screwed that up? Are they going to turn me away at the gate citing some crucial error on my part? All I know is that whenever I double-check something, my mind likes to play tricks on me, and I have to recheck and recheck until the whole thing makes it painfully obvious that I'm getting paranoid. When my Dad tries to remind me of something I might have forgotten, he does it in that anxious voice that really bugs me. It's nice he cares, but then I have to worry about the whole thing again; he is inadvertently causing me serious psychological damage. Or perhaps I am. Oh God. Usually it's not in my ... read more