Dad's Birthday, and me getting sidetracked a tad

Well, today is my dad's birthday. And he's turning old. 60 to be precise. And 60 is a fairly significant birthday, so, logically, I am quite bummed I'm missing it. The worst part is that I'm am missing a trip to New York with my family to celebrate it. So, while I am in school wishing I could be there with them, they are all hanging around New York, eating extremely tasty food, and celebrating my dad's birthday. You know, now that I think about it, I kind of was given the short straw this week. Not only is my family in New York without me, but half of my class is in Santa Pola (a town on the waterfront in Valencia) hanging out on the beach. You see, half of our class takes Industrial Technology while the other half takes Biology, and those taking Biology got the opportunity to go on a extended field trip. So, they are all there for four days doing "biology-related activities", which I interpret as them going out during the first part of the day to look at fish and algae and all that kind of stuff and then hanging out on the beach having a good time for the second half of the day. Simply put, I am rather jealous.
Anyway, to get back to the main purpose of this post: rubbing in the fact my dad is a geezer. I mean he's 60 now, which in my mind is officially a geezer. His number jumped up from 59 to 60 today, while mine did just the opposite, dropping from 60 to 59. Yep, unfortunately I have only 59 days left here in Soto Del Real before heading off on my summer trip with a couple of my friends here. And of those 59 days, 39 of them will, theoretically, be spent in school. Basically, I don't have much time left here, which is something all of us exchange students here have been realizing over the past week or so. You see, almost all of us are counting down by now. But, it isn't one of those happy countdowns, such as the New Year's Eve ball-drop or the number of days left until graduation. It is the sad kind of countdown, the kind that makes you dread the moment when the number will hit 0. And as we all start reaching the 60 days left mark, the end starts to become more and more real. It is how our year started, and it is how our year ends, with a countdown. Just under a year ago, we all started this same countdown. A year ago, we started the countdown of the days we had left until we left for the biggest trip of our lives. And as we hit that 60 day mark, we were hit with two emotions. The first was fear. The fear of leaving our families, our friends, our home, our life that we knew and diving into a new world where we didn't have the protection of our parents or of experience. The second was eagerness. It was an eagerness to start a new life, to learn a new language and culture, to extract everything we could from the coming year. And now, almost a year later, as that countdown begins again, there are two emotions that stand out. The first is dread. Dread of saying goodbye to our family here, to our new friends, and, more than anything, to our new life that we all love so much. The second, though, overrides the first. You see, the second is a feeling that has been slowly swelling throughout this year here. It started the second we left our parents and stepped into our gateway orientation, and ever since then it has slowly been filling a glass that is now nearly full. Some days this glass is filled a lot, some days very little, but everyday it gets a little bit closer to reaching the top. You see, the feeling that will overwhelm all other emotions when I come to leave this summer will be a feeling of accomplishment and pride. You see, I will have just completed the greatest, most life-changing year of my life, and for that I will feel an overwhelming sense of pride in myself. And although I will hate to see it end, it must end. All experiences must have an end point for them to be experiences. Every experience that is considered great must end, because if life doesn't drop back down to a lower level, that experience is not great, but in fact normal. Without low points, the high points are not high, but average. And for that, although I will hate to see this year end, I continue this countdown with, not quite an eagerness, but an acceptance. Not with my head hanging in sadness and dread, but with my head held high, looking on toward the future and what will undoubtedly come to pass. And that is how all of us exchange students here should feel. We are about to complete the most life-changing experience we have ever had, and that should, and will, make us proud.

Well, that is all. This was originally supposed to just be me wishing my dad a happy 60th, but I got a bit sidetracked, but he probably won't mind. So happy birthday Dad, from me, my host family, and my friends who I left in order to write you this. I wish you a happy birthday, and I wish all you other exchange students an incredible last two months. Till next time.