24

And just like that I'll be kissing Watertown goodbye for quite some time. Even then, when I return home to Massachusetts in August there will only be a few weeks before classes begin for me this fall. It's a strange thing realizing that this next day might be the last in which I completely "live" here in the house I have spent the last five years.

Visits home from school are just...well, visits, and the longest vacations aren't long at all. Even summers, the one relic of childhood that lingers throughout the college years, are consumed with volunteer work, classes, and jobs, otherwise known as the the things you try and do to prove you're no kid anymore.

But there's one thing I have taken from the past few months: you can teach in the poorest, furthest, land-locked nation, you can learn, love, and contribute while still being a kid at heart.

If taking time off is a crime, I'm guilty. But with my plea I maintain that nothing does the mind and body better than reassessing needs, dreams, and priorities before moving on to the heavy lifting.

The lifting begins next Monday at Westminster Palace in London.