Detaching

While I generally subscribe to the belief that at the core people's personalities do not significantly change, I do believe that we can shed our skin as snakes do.  With snakes, this process can happen multiple times a year and is dependent on many environmental factors such as temperature, hormones, age, food, and activity level.  Their skin serves as a protective barrier from the external elements and represent their identity (species, age, size etc.).  The snake lives within its skin until the environmental variables signal that it is time for the snake to literally slide out of the old skin.  Nature makes this possible by producing new skin and the snake then detaches and disconnects from the old skin, sliding out in one swift motion to exhibit its new bright exterior to the world.

A rebirth so to speak.  A new stage in the lifecycle.  More room for growth.    

The human existential equivalent has been happening for me over the past few months.  Slowly over time, I have been shedding my skin and am waiting to exhibit my new bright exterior.  Detaching from my comfortable home, job, routines, and belongings brought low levels of anxiety and uncertainty.  Among many things that I cannot even account for at this time, I am preparing for the upcoming  detachment from my American salary, family, vehicle, and prevalence of English.  The environment that I have been existing in for years is about to be redefined and over the next 59 days, I will shed my snake skin and reveal myself 6,000 miles away in Israel.