Road Trip (Day 1) - Leaving SC

....I am writing this blog as I am cruising at 71 mph on I-70W near the border of Illinois (abt 550 miles away from State College). I have decided to try and blog out each day of my road trip to Los Angeles, and this is probably the first in the series of many. As I write this blog I am going through a variety of emotions.

There is more than a tinge of sadness on leaving State College, a place where I had esconced myself for past 2 years and had made many good friends. A quite little campus town with low cost of living, sylvan boulevards deviod of traffic and congestion and most importantly absolutely crime free. I spent yesterday, from 3:00 pm - 1:00 am meeting some of my real close friends, and though I had alloted enough time for each of them, there was just not enough time for everyone....and everytime I exchanged greetings before bidding good bye and made the final eye contact, a nasty thought that I might never meet the person again crossed my mind. Neverthless I came home with a heavy heart and caught up on some much needed sleep.

There is also a feeling of uncertainty and nervousness as I take the plunge into professional life and leave my immature graduate student life behind. Moving alone into a big city like Los Angeles would call for a drastic change of life style which I had been accustomed to in the past 2 years. But I was very impressed with the "city of angels" during my brief stay for the apartment hunting trip, and I am sure I am going to start liking it very soon.

However excitment comes in a different form as I undertake my much coveted road trip. An 8 day road trip through 11 states and consisting of over 3000 miles probably serves as a transition to this new phase of life. Matt has already shown enough driving skills for me to relax and enjoy this flat topography of illionis and spend some time ruminating over the past as well as think about the tense future or should I put it "future tense" :). Things seem under control on the first day of the trip...and I shall report more from the land of the arch (St. Louis) tomorrow .....