Let's REWIND. From the beginning, people. Hopefully, we'll catch up soon.

Okay…I promised that I’d keep a decent journal on this place once I got here, so, as I sit at my desk in my junior high school for the first time…here we go.

The trip here was interesting, as I’m sure most of you expected. I was left with the task of cleaning up an apartment in which four people had lived, yet none had bothered to tidy up before they vacated. I’m proud to say I failed spectacularly at my task, and ran out the door with a sweaty brow, but a huge smile on my face, knowing that I’d just cost someone else a huge chunk of their deposit. Har.

Thus began the final day in Orlando. I slept over at my friend Matthew Pena’s house, and then rushed to work, carrying three computers on my person. The final day at FullSail was odd, because I really didn’t feel like I was leaving. Just…saying “see you later”. Besides, I hadn’t been there long enough to warrant much emotion from my co-workers, but even that felt like a bit of a disservice to them. Didn’t feel like I’d given them enough of my time.

My co-worker Lionel had talked to me the day before, saying “I know I’m not one of your close friends, but your one of the few people who gets my jokes…” blah blah blah…. The thing my co-workers didn’t understand is that they HAD reached the level of close friends. It’s why I liked coming to work everyday…even after throwing newspapers for three hours everyday. These were awesome people, and rival my old RA staff in coolness levels. Problem is, I was still painfully guarded throughout the last year, since my depression had just begun to wear off. So, though Lionel thought I was keeping everyone at a distance, they’d gotten as close as they could. As close as I’d let anyone get, and that’s saying a lot. Because of this, it was all a bit weird. I’m sure they all felt like they barely knew me, when my closed-off natures made me feel like I’d shown them too much.

But, I digress. After saying goodbye, and realizing that my co-workers were actually going to miss me, I hopped in my car, and drove the fastest 162.4 miles I’d ever driven in my entire life. I only had one day at home, and dang it, I was not going to waste any time in my car.

The one cday at home was just as weird. My family acted completely…normal. Like I wasn’t going anywhere. No tears or “Oh, my God, I’m not gonna see you for a long time!!!” The most my mother did was hug me because “I’m not going to get to do this for a long while.” My sister hung out with me a bunch, but she and I have a connection where planets can’t separate us. So, it was just going through the motions, mostly. I ate pizza and ice cream, visited my aunts and uncles, had a rather painful encounter with my senile grandmother (who remembers my sister, but not me) and…went to sleep.

And woke up 40 minutes late! Whoooooo!!! Never moved that fast in my life. We drove my car, Stormy, to the airport, to give me one last ride. I was breathing rather heavily, but I’m not sure if it was from the “tuberculosis” or from nervousness. I still didn’t act as if anything was out of the ordinary. Bags checked. Still normal. Stood in front of the barrier. Still normal. Hugged everyone goodbye. Still…normal. Walked away. Still……..normal. I have some of the greatest emotional blockage I’ve ever seen. I felt myself saying “I should cry, or something…yeah…should be crying. Why aren’t I at least feeling bad?” Like I said, emotions ain’t got nothin’ on me.

Complete and utter lies.

On the plane, I made sure to get a window seat, and the person next to me apparently bailed. So, it was two people in three seats. The man in the row with me was Jim Dyer, a name I want to remember, so that when I come back, I can drop his name somewhere so he’ll know it’s me. He gave me a little advice which I’m gonna try and follow through on, but…no promises.

Landing in Dallas was simple enough. Especially because my next plane was leaving from the same gate where I arrived. Called my folks, said bye again…still no real reaction, and hopped on the plane. And again, the person sitting next to me had bailed. My "luck" was frighteningly good. And as a cynic…it was all starting to scare me. Regardless…I was on the plane. I was in the air. I was leaving America.

Matt Shannon explained to me that there was one point on the flight the might creep me out. This one point was the Rubicon, a word I use often, which is basically the point of no-return. Or, well, in this case, the point of slightly more difficult return. I slept right through this point without even realizing it, but when I opened my eyes, the panic hit me momentarily. I was closer to Japan than I was to my own home. That may seem normal to travelly folk, but for a kid who had never left the country, and RARELY left his own state…that was huge. I looked out my window, and could see Russia. Russia. The Russia I’d seen on the news. The Russia I’d studied in class. Oh, sure, I knew it all existed, but there ha always been this curtain of shadow around my world, kinda like a video game map that you haven’t explored yet. And the farther I flew from home, the farther that curtain withdrew. Russia. That was frickin’ Siberia. SIBERIA.

A giggling Japanese soccer player broke my decent into masked panic. I thank her for that. No one would have ever guessed that I was freaking out, but…I was. Fortunately, I had Nacho Libre to keep me calm. I mean, come on…watching Jack Black prance around a wrestling ring 5 times in one flight has got to help calm a person’s nerves, right? Ha…ha ha…ha…… Jack, we’re cool and all, but, man…don’t ever mention that movie around me. Fortunately, just as I was about to punch the screen, the movie flickered off.

“We are now descending into Tokyo Narita Airport.”

…Well…here we go…

To Be Continued…