Anticipation and fading into the background

I created a to-do list this morning, and despite it being a mile long, I still feel the compelling urge to take a few moments out of the chaos to write a little.

Friday evening I head to Baltimore to board a plane Saturday morning to head to Costa Rica.

I've been planning for this trip since last summer and while I am extremely excited, I find myself experiencing a vast array of conflicting emotions.

Wednesday ends the 2016-2017 school year and with all of the excitement from the past few weeks and the few weeks forthcoming, I am finding this conclusion simply fading into the background. While I am ready for the "break" from work, I find that the end is not as full of anticipation as previous years. Tomorrow is just a Wednesday. I will see my students in the morning, send them off home before lunch and then wave to them in the hallways next year as eight graders.

And then Friday I leave.

Despite not experiencing a conscious feeling of anxiety, I can tell that my body is reacting to the stress and unknown of it all. My brain spins in constant motion as I work to complete my grad work before I leave as well as compile all of the supplies I could possibly need for a week in a foreign country. As I work I constantly have to remind myself that I have no more weekends in which to catch up before I head off on my venture. Balancing my time between school, grad work, my apartment (which is desperate need of a cleaning before I leave), and my hometown, I find the hours dwindling to minutes.

I'm spending a lot of time thinking about what needs to be done because I can't muster the energy to begin. So, with a firm deadline in sight and only a day and a half more with my students, it's time to embrace each minute - sucking as much life from the seconds ticking by as I can.
This week is short, but I am absolutely sure that next week will feel infinitely shorter and infinitely longer than the ones before it.