Appropriate picture? Comic relief. It’s the best way I deal with stress.

There are so many little things that need to be taken care of before one leaves home for a year; it can be very overwhelming. How will you pay the bills? Set up automatic payments as much as possible. Do you have a car? Will you continue to pay insurance on it? Cancel it or down grade. Get someone to start it every now and again so it doesn’t seize up. Will you use a cell phone and what does that look like? You can cancel your plan entirely and just use SIM cards but you will lose your phone number. I use Whatsapp so I need to keep my cell number. I down graded my plan, will use SIM cards, and have my same number upon return so I don’t have to change it with every business I deal with, friends, family, and work. Speaking of work – I had to clean out my entire classroom. Packing, packing and more packing. Where will you store everything? Do you have space or will you rent the space? What does your home situation look like? Do you have pets – who will take care of them? Did you buy everything you need for the trip? What about that universal adapter? Did you pack too much? Probably. Lighten the load. You know that every country has grocery stores and pharmacies. You don’t need 12 bars of soap and 3 tubes of toothpaste.

I’m forgetting to list a million more things. But you get the idea. Plan ahead and know that you cannot possibly take care of everything the week before you leave. But the last few days will be more hectic than you could imagine. Your fuse will burn at both ends, meet in the middle then find something else to burn. Find your balance. And know that things will work out the way they are supposed to, it’s part of the adventure – just breathe.