I went to dinner tonight with some friends. We had planned to get together before I left so that we could just catch up and then say goodbye. I was sure to get myself in a “calm, cool, and collected” place mentally before I left my house to meet them. My sister came along, so that made me feel less worried about freaking out over this goodbye. Couple that with the fact that I told my friends I was only going for a few months, and things went quite well for me. No hyperventilating, no palpitations, and not even a tear.

Then I was told to open my gift…”OH NO”, I thought to myself, “don’t cry, keep it together…FOCUS!” With that internal prompting I opened up my gift. It was a pretty garden plaque with a saying on it and it read as if it were made for me. All I needed after that was to remember the words on the plaque and I knew it was going to be alright.

Thanks Mel…Love Ya, Mean It!!!