On your mark, get set...

---

There sure are a lot of logistics in leaving your everyday life for a three and a half month trip around the world. I'm trying not to get bogged down in the zillion things I need to take care of which fall into two big buckets: tying up my life here and preparing for my life there.

The biggest part of my tying up my life here is spending time with my friends and family. I know that 3.5 months really isn’t that long but my friends and family are a big part of my life so not seeing or talking to any of them for an extended amount of time seems outrageous. My current strategy is to saturate myself with as many people’s presence as I can to make up for future lost time. I’m not sure how it is working for them, esp. given just how busy people are generally and during the holidays even more so. I just have to trust they will speak up when they have had their fill of KT (Kelly time).

It is an incredible blessing that I get to take a leave of absence from my job. Not only because I love my job, my boss, my company, and my colleagues but also because I will have a job to return to. That definitely takes away some stress of such a big adventure. Lately I have been trying not only to finish up those projects that I can and pass others onto my colleagues but also to be able and willing to let go of my work. This is proving more difficult for me than one might think. It isn’t that I don’t think they can do it but more about being okay with not being an indispensable part of my team. It’s an ego thing, I know, but something I am going through nonetheless. I want my transition out to be seamless, but not so much so that they realize they don’t need me.

Preparing for my trip is a second job, really, that I work nights and weekends. From getting my apartment and bills taken care of while I am gone to buying all the supplies I will need (without going overboard – that’s the tricky part) to getting all my vaccines (wait, what?!?! There is a polio outbreak in China right now and I need a booster? WTF) not to mention planning what I want to do where... <span> I have barely thought about what I want to do in the 11 countries I will be visiting. As the days creep by I find myself closer and closer to leaving as well as more pressed for time to get things done.

<span>42 days to go, but who’s counting?

---