12 Days to go: Wake up call

So here it is, early in the morning on Friday the 28th of May. I am now 12 days away from flying out of my hometown of Dubuque, Iowa and to the luminous west coast haven of San Francisco. Although I've been looking forward to leaving Iowa and heading off into the crazy and new world of California since January, it's really an amazing thing how little of my trip has actually been planned. As we speak I am finally in the process of finding an apartment and reflecting on what it is that I am actually going to need to be living on my own for two months. It's a scary thought leaving and living on my own, having up to this point lived a very dependent life, too dependent.

I had quite the wake-up call two days ago when I received a response from my hopefully soon-to-be boss Joseph Campos to an email I sent him regarding the details surrounding my trip to California. I sent him a message asking him to confirm what I took to be assumptions about my trip. For instance, I had been under the assumption that the story I heard of the last Luther student (though more of a legend than an actual story) living with Dr. Campos for a few weeks and then finding a place to stay in San Francisco would be the exact case with my own stay, an important detail was brought to my attention by Dr. Campos's return email. Joseph was going to Europe and would not be returning until two weeks AFTER I was planning on arriving in the city. The glorious part about this information: I already knew that Dr. Campos wasn't going to be there when I arrived, he told me when we talked a few weeks ago. The most glorious part: this meant my fantastical plan of staying over at the Campos's home and eating home-cooked meals with them culminating in picking out a choice apartment with the help of Dr. Campos, was indeed fantasy. The email I received from Dr. Campos direly reminded me that these were things that I needed to figure out (in so many kind words) setting my head back on straight to the task at hand and out of the state of denial I had been in. I decided to take the advice of a friend of mine and send him an email confirming my ability to make the necessary arrangements for living in San Francisco for the summer in order to work in his lab. The advice was as follows: "It's time to man up, or curl up."

So I, in a sense, 'manned up'. With the help of my wise mother (who has been anticipating my move far more than I have), I have now contacted two potential apartment renter's nearby the part of the university where I will be working. If I'm lucky I'll have a place to call home before I get out there.

So there it is. 12 days to go. I am now on my way to realistically spending the summer in California where I will hopefully work harder than I have ever worked.