Between my travels, communication with people, mission trip and vacations, I have learned a lot this summer about myself, my family, and the world, and it feels great. These lessons aren’t necessarily advice or factual, but just things I’ve learned personally. I compiled a top 20 list (because top 10s are overrated) of some lessons, inspiration and comedy summed up, in no particular order. Enjoy!
1. I love God, and love the fact that I was raised Greek Orthodox Christian! Being in Mexico with Orthodox people of such strong faith helps connect you so much more, and it’s nice to have designated time for morning and evening prayers and quiet time. I want to take up chanting now and as much as I love Spanish and Spanish-style hymns, it almost reminds me of what everything sounds like in Greek. In more exciting news, I just downloaded an iTouch app that I’d highly recommend, called Greek Orthodox Calendar. You can look up anyone’s Greek name/namesday, list of fasting periods and holidays and more, try it! A small way to be reminded of your faith when you are listening to music or browsing the internet!
2. I love my entire extended family. This summer, I’ve been to more family events with my dad’s side of the family with two 50th wedding anniversary celebrations, and gotten to see all of my cousins and 2nd cousins on my mom’s side this past week in New Jersey and Ohio. I hope my kids one day are just as close with their 2nd cousins!
3. Which brings me to next, I love having two wonderful sisters (shoutout M & E!) who are so close to my age, and being the oldest cousin. I don’t know if everyone loves me more because I went away to college, but it’s fun being one of three sisters within three years and always having a cute child or pack of children to hang out with or babysit as the oldest cousin.
4. Children need unconditional love and attention. I mean everyone does, but especially them. Always love. This was reinforced not only by being around a plethora of young cousins, but the boys at St. Innocent Orphanage too.
5. As one of America’s prototypical type A, ambitious, and crazy people, I’ve learned to take time to enjoy the simple things in life like I did in Mexico. Whether it was spending an entire night playing Egyptian rat screw with a deck of cards, Monopoly or watching a sunset, it’s always nice to sit back, relax and have fun even when there’s one more tiny thing that can be done.
6. I did before, but I will always love scenic and beautiful areas…whether on a walk or just a gorgeous view. I spent an hour walking around a reservoir in New Jersey, spent countless hours staring at the view of the Pacific Ocean from the steps at the orphanage, and a lot of time photographing the mountains in Mexico, so hopefully I’ll always have opportunities to view such pretty places.
7. Get some calming music and put it on the background every once in awhile. As golden as silence can be, nice music (instrumental, songs that are inside jokes, someone playing guitar) is a nice asset to a perfect evening.
8. Cooking and baking are fun! I don’t know if I’m quite ready to rely on it for all of my food, but it’s fun to do every once in awhile : ). It’s an enjoyable leisure activity….except that baked goods are my weakness (prime example: the panaderias in Mexico). After making banana bread and prosphora in Mexico, brownies in Jersey, and meals with Kara in DC, I’ve also realized what a luxury dishwashers are…haha. But handwashing the dishes is peaceful/fun.
9. The west coast > east coast. Without question. I do like the proximity of all the major cities on the east coast (being able to get from DC to New York in about 3 hours if need be), and other big towns, but there’s something to the Pacific Ocean that just makes it 20 times better than the Atlantic Ocean. I made this realization while at the Jersey Shore with Kira & Sophia…something was just missing, hence, why I love California.
10. After a lot of reflective time to think about this, and because of the above discovery, I decided that sometime after I graduate (I’m not going to set any time parameters), I’m moving to San Diego. Crossing the border whenever I want, and living in my dream home with an in-ground pool in the backyard. And to complete my perfect home, my kitchen will have a natural frozen yogurt machine so I can have frozen yogurt, strawberries and granola whenever I want. :)
11. It’s 100% ALWAYS worth your time to take a trip and visit friends. And you don’t have to see the highlights of every town while you’re doing it….you went to see them and catch up, not to sightsee every aspect of America’s largest cities. Or you can kill two birds with stone, but the past week has been really great catching up with family and friends, sightseeing, but not getting totally burnt out in touristiness. I know that’s not a word, but whatever.
12. But before you travel somewhere, think about everyone you know in that area previous to arriving, and make plans with them if you want to see them! I learned this after getting to New Jersey and realizing how many people I could have seen but didn’t get to. Sad. Hope arrives when I realize…I’ll be back! And take advantage of public transportation!! I’ve been on and mastered the Metra, L/CTA in Chicago, Metro bus and train in DC, Circulator, Megabus and Southwest airlines in the past few weeks and never felt better! Who needs gas money when you have passes and tickets to these things!
13. I think this everyday but I learned it more and more each day this summer—I have the greatest friends in the world. Even if I wasn’t with everyone I wanted to see every day this summer, I loved days like my one day back in between Mexico and east coast trips where my all of my friends can just walk into my house and eat oreos and Fresca while laughing all night about absolutely nothing. None of you make fun of me for my insanity, or get aggravated at me for Skyping/texting/calling you for no reason. And even as I meet new people that become best friends, it hasn’t been hard to reconnect with the people I’ve been friends with forever and we will always understand everything about each other. I am spoiled to have such nice, kind, patient and hilarious people as friends. More in the next reason.
14. There were two days in Mexico where I get 6 letters each day. SIX. I felt like a spoiled brat!! But this is when I concluded…in addition to having the best friends in the world, people are SO MUCH FUNNIER (more funny, to those of you with pet peeves) in letters!! And these are people that are already funny in person, so imagine me crying in laughter at the most amusing stories/pieces of information that mean nothing to most people. Anna & Emily (my co-OBT-interns in Mexico) would just stare at me as I was cracking up at everything going on in Northbrook, thanks for the updates. Thank you to everyone who wrote me while I was in Mexico, and look forward to reading my list of favorite quotes from letters that were mailed to me, to come in a future blog post at the end of the summer.
15. And it was so fun to hand write everyone, but I can’t possibly imagine what the world would be like without the internet or Skype. They have kept me in touch with many of you throughout my past five weeks, and I have been blessed to even have access to them (at least these past two). We thought Facebook addictions were bad? I am now on Skype WAY TOO MUCH and it’s not even like I can convince myself that it’s a bad habit like Facebook stalking, because it’s video chatting people you can’t physically be with! And it’s sooo much fun! My Yiayia can’t even grasp the idea that you are talking to people who are also at their computer with their webcams, it’s great.
16. Another lesson I learned the hard way: get important things done ahead of time! Online classes, scrapbooking, birthday gifts, etc, and you won’t regret it! I have an entire online class to begin tomorrow and I’m so worried, I can’t even discuss it!
17. …But still appreciate everything else you did, whether it was taking a full day or a few hours to update this blog, traveling, spending time with people you rarely see, and more. :D. I don’t regret anything I did with my time this summer, and does that mean I cleared my to do list? No. But who cares! I’ll get it done!
18. You probably could have guessed this one, but I never realized that I get overwhelmed really easily (panic attacks, etc), but that’s okay. And I do this getting really simple things done, like running an errand or grabbing something for someone, so it’s odd. I think this is because I’m constantly around people who have high expectations, or I think they have high expectations because I do, so I’m always trying to kill a lot more than I probably should. Post-Mexico, I was able to calm down and not stress as much though, so yay!
19. #18 helped me realized this…especially because I’ve been called Patricia (my mother) about 10 times this past week and a lot by Christy in Mexico…but I am slowly becoming more and more like my parents. In a strictness sense, and just catching on to similar tendencies and more. Whether it’s being a clean freak, asking unnecessary rhetorical questions, or just being in a parental mindset while around my cousins. Some of my friends have a kid-type mindset intentionally, like letting kids they babysit have another scoop of ice cream, etc, which is what I always thought I’d be like. Now, I just think that’s crazy. So in an organized and cleanliness sense, I will always be Angelo and Patricia.
20. Last lesson: you cannot predict the future, and you can sure as heck try with planning events, goals, and more….but you have to be up for anything. Who cares if I didn’t see everyone I wanted to, I’ll come back! I can work out ways to get in-state tuition and work-related internships AND go back to Mexico if it’s what is meant to happen! Plans change, and if it’s really meant for you, you’ll figure out a way around it! So what if mine and my friends’ weddings are planned before the potential husbands even come…we just can’t be disappointed if the plans change. And those are the lessons I have learned this summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment