I’m sinking into my shipboard bed (wow, no pun intended), and I can believe it. About two feet from my head is the open sea: crashing waves, gluttonous sharks, monstrous whales, and probably a good handful of shipwrecked boats. That’s scary to think about considering I am going to be on this vessel for the next one hundred days and am surely going to encounter my share of rough waters. The engine’s hum accompanies the ship’s pitches, and I thank the student directors from the bottom of my sea legs that I sleep on the lowest level, minimizing that rocking effect. After sitting through two sea meetings with the Dean and Co., as well as my Residential Director (the equivalent of an R.A.), I’m stunned in my own ability to hold down my dinner while swaying to and fro…ever so gently.
I am aboard the 92nd voyage of Semester at Sea; as unnerving as it may seem, this is my new life…be jealous.
An hour and a half of waiting in line got me to the ship, and five minutes of registration got me to my cabin. Upon stepping foot on my floor, a.k.a. the Aegean Sea, I met my roommate, who has surpassed my expectations thus far. A sophomore from Minnesota, with future plans in law and her priorities completely aligned, she’s also a winner in the personality department.
As I can only imagine, my mother is in Florida right now, meeting her girlfriends for a wee vacation, drinking margaritas by the pool, and crying about her sea bound daughter. Blubbering, from either side, can only describe the scene hours earlier, when I said goodbye to my parents for 100 days. And now as I adorn my room walls with antique-looking world maps and pictures like the marking of life achievements on the refrigerator door, I know I’ve got more to look forward to than I can fathom in this little confused brain of mine. Meeting hundreds of new friends on a daily basis, eating breakfast with a side of sunrise and salty air, and waiting for the next port of call to rise from the horizon line will be common events in the life of Lindsay Clark, world traveler…soon to be world citizen.
Today was a near perfect day, and the Colts winning Super Bowl XLI was the cherry on top.