One month until my life changes forever.

No, I am not getting married or having a kid (yet anyway), but when I looked at my iCal this morning, I realized, that for real, I will be in Germany and Poland one month from now. I've never left the continent, and I wanted my first time to sort of have some meaning and purpose.

When I found out almost two months ago that I was chosen to go, a lot of people were very happy for me, which I appreciated, but the fact that I appreciated with some more thought and personal reflection was when they found out why I would be going, and the purpose for my trip, they would sort of give me this look of confusion.

Yes, I am not Jewish, yes, I have not been personally affected by the Holocaust, but this look of confusion I received often has truly helped me to try and attempt to answer for myself, "Why am I going to Germany and Poland for this purpose?" I may think that I am going to honour my friends' family histories and backgrounds, or get a first-hand look at the atrocities, but again this sense of curiosity keeps bringing me back to that question.

I have a strong feeling that this trip will open my eyes to the world in a way that I would probably have never imagined. Never, for a trip in my life have I ever felt so many different emotions: curiosity, excitement, anticipation, confusion, fear, joy etc.

I've always been oddly intrigued and interested by World War II, with the Holocaust being a large proportion of it. Even to this day it ceases to amaze me what happened, and that in reality, this could have been prevented, or at least stopped before it could get out of hand, which did occur.

For those that might not know what the March of Remembrance and Hope is, it is a yearly journey to Germany and Poland, co-ordinated by the Canadian Centre For Diversity, for post-secondary students across Canada to get the opportunity to understand first-hand and comprehensively, the circumstances surrounding, during and the fall-out of the Holocaust.

I am fully aware that no matter what I might think you know about the Holocaust, and no matter why I felt the need to go, I feel I probably won't be able to answer the question "Why Am I truly going?" until some epiphany sometime during the trip.