I was looking through some old journals I wrote when I was in Penn and this made me smile....

"So it hit me, as I sit in the Philadelphia airport food court, eating my long awaited egg sandwich, waiting for my flight to Vancouver, how surreal this is. Waiting to see my parents I have not met for 3 months. Flying alone. Again. Something that I have fallen in love with.

I muse, how different life has turned out. Right here, in the middle of the paging messages, surrounded my strangers, I suddenly feel more at peace than I ever have. With myself.

How differently life has turned out.

I remember how a year back I wrote in a blog entry about being in a different place from where I was suppose to be, doing a different subject from what I was suppose to do and being in a different person's room from the one I am use to being in. And it was about how I have relinquished being Cherry, and became Charissa.

Today I write that again. Sitting in a different country, with different people, different sensations. Different emotions. And most importantly, I have became comfortable with being Charissa.

I took that step to pursue a crazy dream of coming to America, and after pouring over guidebooks and websites, I am finally here.

Ralista was right. You can never plan too much in life. Because there will always be greater things coming your way that you have never expected.

I am living my dream. Right here, in my teal plastic chair, beauty from the neon red pizza sign, I feel like I am in the centre of my little Universe, right beside Him. "

I am three times removed from that writing, but still feeling every bit of it.