My reason for taking this trip has seemed to slip my mind a few times. I went through a few strange months back home where I dealt with stuff I hadn't before and was ready for a change. I made some big decisions and decided that this was going to be my opportunity to do so much with my goals: practice and improve my own Spanish to help my students, immerse myself in the culture of Peru, and take time for myself to ponder and remind myself that I just need to be me. I am not here to find a guy, of course there are quite a few that are attractive and have the qualities I like (traveler, willing to learn new language, willing to go somewhere with me or visit, etc) but that's not my mission here. Too often I forgot to be myself and not worry about my outward appearance or how others thought of me. In the last few months I've thought a lot about this and I can say that my views towards myself have changed. I'm not going to be able to change my body to be someone else's or have the same opportunities that someone else does, so why not make the best on what I have.
I've noticed in the last few days that a little part of me has been worried on what others think of me and whatnot that it even had me feeling blue this morning. I felt as if I was going backwards and not forward as I had planned. So today I am setting a goal to turn this around.
Before I left Omaha I bought 2 books at target for my trip: Mindy Kaling's book (HILARIOUS) and The Happiness Project. I finished the first book on my plane ride and have given it to another traveler so they can have a laugh! But the second book I have been reading for a week. This is a book that I don't want to rush through, but rather take each month (book divided by months) and think about it before going on to the next one. I have underlined and reread a few parts that were notable to me and have tried to do a few actions in the book.
At the beginning of this post I put a quote from the book that I just read last night. This is what got me thinking, am I happy? am I enjoying myself right now or waiting for the action to be done to enjoy myself? I have to sit and reflect on myself and do believe that, like the author, I am happy but not as happy as I could be if I was living my life to the fullest. I worry to much about what I will do in the future and what will be fun that I lose sight and forget to enjoy things now, but this trip is helping me do just that.
A few other things that I took from this book:
*People don't notice your mistakes as much as you think
*You don't have to be good at everything
*One can't change others, but work only on themselves
*Don't expect praise or appreciation (this one spoke to me quite a bit)
*Pursue a profession that comes easily and that you love, the more eager you are to practice the less it will seem like work (is it teaching? Traveling? Spanish?)
*Do what I want to do, ignore options that aren't right for me no matter how enticing
*Enjoy the fun of failure; it's part of being ambitious; it's part if being creative. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly
This is as far as I have gotten in the book (May). There is much more that I have noted, but these are the ones that have stuck out to me the most so far. I am taking each day as it's own and need to just remind myself: enjoy now and breathe it all in.
We didn't do much yesterday besides going to a kids festival and the guys came and hung out. We told ghost stories and watched Mulan. The only thing that bothered me was that they told me how far away they lived and drove to hang out with us and we didn't do much. I think next time there needs to be more of a plan for them to come that far out of their way.
Tomorrow we start at the school Arenitas del Mar in VillaSalvador in the after school program. I believe we are headed to centro today. I am just itching to get outside of Lima. I have only been here for about 10 days but I know there is so much to do outside the city that I just want to go. I'm pumped to go to Cuzco and see some more of Peru, especially the history buff in me is pumped.
Today will be a relaxed day and tomorrow is when it all pretty much starts. Ya vamos. Oh btw Go ARGENTINA!! #mundial
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