I am a very last minute person. Maybe it’s because I work better under pressure, so 10pm the night before a 15-page is due is actually the peak of my productivity. Maybe it’s because I like the excitement, the exhilaration and the sense of accomplishment that comes from arriving at the airport 20 minutes before my flight the night before Thanksgiving, rushing through security, and collapsing into my seat on the airplane with five minutes to spare. Maybe it’s just laziness. But whatever it is, I have been increasingly unable to combat it throughout high school and college.

I thought, however, that my preparations for studying abroad in Nantes would be exempt from my natural tendency toward procrastination. I mean, this isn’t like a final paper, where even if I start it the night before I’ll get it done. But that was not the case.

I had my appointment with the French Consulate in Chicago to get my student visa literally three days before I went home for winter break. That was the earliest time that I could schedule it considering I did not fill out my Campus France application, the French government’s student visa pre-approval process, until two weeks before. And the reason for that was that I put off renewing my passport, a process that can take up to 12 weeks, until three days before I went back to school this summer. The list goes on.

But now, with a week left before my departure, I have found that I am actually pretty prepared. My flights are finally booked, my last forms submitted (although well after the deadline), and most of my travel requirements purchased, thanks mostly to Christmas presents from relatives. I was never worried. I’ve known all along that things would come together eventually. I knew that because this is too big of an opportunity to mess up. I have planned on studying abroad since before high school, and have become progressively more excited about it as it gets closer.

I am excited to live with a family, to see and become part of their lives and to allow them to become part of mine. I am excited about becoming fluent in French, a language that I have been continually failing to grasp since 9th grade. I am excited about being the only Northwestern student in Nantes, and being forced to start over and meet entirely new people. Most of all, I am excited to immerse myself in another culture, not just to be an outside observer.

So now, with nothing left to do except pack, it has finally sunk in that this study abroad thing is really happening. This journey that for years has been something to look forward to, a subject of small talk with relatives and acquaintances rather than something concrete and real, is actually about to begin. And, for once, I couldn’t be more ready.