Everything is a little sweeter with an expiration date.

As I prepare for our departure, I have thought more than once about what I am going to miss the most about living in the United States. Looking around me on a daily basis, it pretty quickly becomes clear. The diversity of my nation. Living, working, eating, and playing around people of various backgrounds, ethnicities, races, cultures, religions every single day. I take it for granted, this rainbow of the United States. But the prospect of moving to a country where most people are racially/ethnically similar, I realize that I am going to miss this very visual reminder of how open, tolerant, and accepting the U.S. is. Few places in the world have this diversity. And I am embarrassed to admit I got a rather large lump in my throat at the gym a few days ago (right after a set on the lat pull-down!) looking around me and realizing how much I am going to miss seeing the variety of people I do on a regular basis. It will be different. Very, very different. And in the meantime, looking around at everyday people is well, just a little sweeter.