The Wait Is Over.

     I've always been the last to board the train, literally and figuratively.  In the same manner that I dash to the doors, bells and announcements sounding, the train just seconds from leaving the station, I also board the train of life as the last to get cable, the last to own a cassette player, to purchase a car, learn to use a computer, carry a cell phone, an iPod, the list goes on and on. And now I am again the last in my circle of friends and family to embark on a new adventure: to travel overseas.  Yes, Italy awaits.
     Now some may say, "So?"  "Who cares?"  "What's the big deal?"  "You've never been to Europe or out of the country?"  "Why the hell not?" My response: "I care!"  "It's a big deal for me."  And, "No, I've never been out of the country other than to the Caribbean." There was a jaunt to Jost Van Dyke from St. John that last summer got me my first and only stamp on my passport.  For many like me, that is a way of life.  Travelling is expensive and out of reach in this economy.  But where I live, everyone seems to travel.  Many of my colleagues are on a plane several times a year, and though I too travel, it is once-a-year only, and my entire tax return pays for it. I don't know how people afford the trips they take.  I have students who go away with their families for Christmas, February, April and summer break. It's crazy.  People have so much money. 
     But a trip to Italy for my family of four will prove costly.  And so it goes, that a year ago the seed was planted, and I began planning my first trip to Europe, the summer 2011 trip to Italy.  My kids think I'm nuts.  I have talked about this trip now as if it were around the corner, when in fact it is still a year out.   But that's how we do things in my house.  We leave no stone unturned.  I have opened up a credit union account for the trip and have side jobs lined up for it.  I have special folders on my computer for villas and places to see and research.  My husband and I frequent Barnes and Noble to read up on the latest news for Italian travel.  We have translation guides and cookbooks around the house to keep things interesting. We watch any films that may inspire us  from "When in Rome" and  "Under the Tuscan Sun"  to "Cinema Paradiso" and "Il Postino."  We even bought a pasta machine to experiment with homemade macaroni. 
     Yes, all is abuzz here as we make this, our trip of a lifetime, happen; the one so many before us have taken, and the trip many will take long after.  It matters little to me that I am last in line to stamp my passport with a European country and board that train with everyone else I know, because good things come to those who wait. And at 46, I have waited long enough.