when opportunity knocks

A very good friend of mine from high school, Francesca, and her sister had been living and just traveling in Europe for the past several months. Jealous? Yep, I was too. Every time there were new pictures on Facebook I would look through them with envy and a growing desire to one day go to Europe and see all the places that I dreamed about. One evening my friend came over and as we were talking she mentioned that her sister was not returning to Europe with her and she was going back alone. My immediate reaction was, "If my parents would let me take a semester off of school I would drop everything in a heartbeat and join you!" Although this is what I said out loud, I knew that never in a million years would my parents agree to this or even consider it. The next morning, while we were all driving to watch my sister's Senior Recognition at my high school, I casually brought up this absurd idea to my parents. Expecting to be shot down immediately, instead, the car was silent as both my mom and dad pondered on the idea. They then asked if I was serious and if it was something that I would really want to do, which I of course responded with "Heck ya!"They expressed that it was a great and once in a lifetime opportunity. I then talked to my friend about it and had lots of discussions with my parents and made lots of phone calls. We also had a little meeting with my friend and her parents and learned that Francesca's family has a lot of connections and family in Europe and that we would be very well taken care of and completely safe. This cemented my parents mind about the idea and then Gordon said that I was fine to go and that I would be all set to come back in the fall. Financially it sounds unrealistic, but actually it will cost a whole lot less than a semester at Gordon and I will most likely be able to finish school in two years without staying an extra semester. All of the pieces fell together perfectly and we could not have planned it better. I'm not quite sure what I did to be blessed with this once in lifetime/ dream come true opportunity and it is probably the craziest thing I will do in my entire life but I am so excited I can't even sleep at night!