Today is June 19th. That means I have 30 days until I turn 29 years old on July 18th. That means I have only thirteen months left until I am 30 years old and the roaring 20's are complete. Some people call it over the hill. My mom says it's the best time of your life, because you've finally dealt with all of the young adult anxiety of being on your own, but you're still young enough and physically primed enough to enjoy life to the maximum.
I spent a lot of my 20's wondering about how to find true love, even though I spent a lot of my time exploring the world around me, and taking advantage of the gift of being single and free. There were many women I got to know who helped me grow and enjoy the life show. Any time I thought I was supposed to "win" one and had "failed," I would realize a few years later just how much of a mismatch it would have been in the long run, and how much fun I had had since then. And for each one of those, there were a few who wished I would have simply paid attention to them instead. Now that I think of it, I was just insecure and inexperienced back then, because I actually did have a chance with each girl who turned into a fiasco at some point, and I had been too blind to see it. Most importantly, none of them were failures. It only would have been a failure if I hadn't met them, spent time with them, enjoyed them, learned from them and laughed with them at all. Looking back, it all balanced out, and it wasn't really anybody's fault. Just lives connecting to each other and flowing where they were supposed to go.
Today I didn't drive back from any music festivals, or canoe out of any wildernesses. I just went to work to teach people, got an eye exam and wrote. We learned "recreation" vocabulary, grammar, and had two student presentations. I'm making everybody teach the class something for at least ten minutes so they get practice with public speaking and confidence in front of a group. A French girl taught us about the European Union, and a Siberian girl taught us about the largest lake by volume in the world, which is near her hometown.
Then we watched this History of US video from the History Channel Series we'd been watching. Last week was the Revolutionary War. This week was westward expansion and pioneering. We saw a lot of covered wagons with wagon wheels heading west to settle, and a lot of San Francisco gold miners rushing for treasure. We saw Abraham Lincoln grow up in a log cabin before setting out on a young man's journey. We also saw the greatest hunter in America, Jed Smith, get mauled by a grizzly bear. We saw Lewis & Clark become the first Westerners to reach the Pacific Ocean, that is, after being saved and guided by Sacajawea.
Afterward I had everybody write very quickly about something from the past that they're happy we don't have to deal with now, something from the present that they appreciate because it wasn't here before, and one of the intriguing frontiers still untouched by humanity in the present day.
Then I sat through a teacher's meeting, ate Burmese food for the first time, and went to get my eyes examined so I can renew my driver's license and keep piloting the Wagen Wheel. The doctor said I have "excellent vision."
If only I could see what the next year has in store for me...
I spent a lot of my 20's wondering about how to find true love, even though I spent a lot of my time exploring the world around me, and taking advantage of the gift of being single and free. There were many women I got to know who helped me grow and enjoy the life show. Any time I thought I was supposed to "win" one and had "failed," I would realize a few years later just how much of a mismatch it would have been in the long run, and how much fun I had had since then. And for each one of those, there were a few who wished I would have simply paid attention to them instead. Now that I think of it, I was just insecure and inexperienced back then, because I actually did have a chance with each girl who turned into a fiasco at some point, and I had been too blind to see it. Most importantly, none of them were failures. It only would have been a failure if I hadn't met them, spent time with them, enjoyed them, learned from them and laughed with them at all. Looking back, it all balanced out, and it wasn't really anybody's fault. Just lives connecting to each other and flowing where they were supposed to go.
Today I didn't drive back from any music festivals, or canoe out of any wildernesses. I just went to work to teach people, got an eye exam and wrote. We learned "recreation" vocabulary, grammar, and had two student presentations. I'm making everybody teach the class something for at least ten minutes so they get practice with public speaking and confidence in front of a group. A French girl taught us about the European Union, and a Siberian girl taught us about the largest lake by volume in the world, which is near her hometown.
Then we watched this History of US video from the History Channel Series we'd been watching. Last week was the Revolutionary War. This week was westward expansion and pioneering. We saw a lot of covered wagons with wagon wheels heading west to settle, and a lot of San Francisco gold miners rushing for treasure. We saw Abraham Lincoln grow up in a log cabin before setting out on a young man's journey. We also saw the greatest hunter in America, Jed Smith, get mauled by a grizzly bear. We saw Lewis & Clark become the first Westerners to reach the Pacific Ocean, that is, after being saved and guided by Sacajawea.
Afterward I had everybody write very quickly about something from the past that they're happy we don't have to deal with now, something from the present that they appreciate because it wasn't here before, and one of the intriguing frontiers still untouched by humanity in the present day.
Then I sat through a teacher's meeting, ate Burmese food for the first time, and went to get my eyes examined so I can renew my driver's license and keep piloting the Wagen Wheel. The doctor said I have "excellent vision."
If only I could see what the next year has in store for me...
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