I've been thinking a lot about the path we choose to take.
Everyday you're presented with decisions, most have very little impact on your life as a whole... Paper or plastic... Soy or almond... But sometimes we make a simple decision which, either alone or in conjunction with other random bits of life, really turn the whole thing upside down.
In a good way or a bad way -- that is the question.
For me, I can honestly say that good or bad is uber amplified based on how the random decision was arrived at. I told a boyfriend once, "You're trying to influence me to do X, and I really want to do Y. If I choose X and it goes wrong, I will blame you for the rest of your life. If I choose Y and it goes wrong, I will take it as a lesson learned."
In the grander scheme of things I believe that when you are on YOUR PATH -- making the decisions that speak to YOU -- the happys are somehow happier and the sads are definitely happier... But when you step off your path, whether by peer pressure or fear or the noise and chaos of life, and you take even a single step on someone else's path, the sads are devastating, the angers are raging, and the happys are meh.
I also believe that when you try to walk someone else's brick road or march to their drum, the universe throws obstacles in your way... boulders fall from the sky, nails puncture your tires, traffic jams abound... until you either accept your new shitty, soul crushing path as inevitable... or take Herculean steps to shove and shoulder your way back to your strawberry fields.
Why is she waxing so fucking philosphic, you may ask.
Because I stumbled off my happy path in Italy. I got distracted by someone else's ideals and as a result I've been dodging sky boulders, stepping knee deep into quicksand, and running through acid rain for four months. To the point I was almost ready to go to Oregon.
But now, in order to retake control, I've changed my 'tude. I decided that these past four months have been "just a quick detour"... And in order to get back onto my path I'll need to follow this detour until it merges back into my previously high road.
Therefore, I've taken a job teaching ESL in Poland. September - June.
I'm super excited to start a new adventure -- I've never been to Eastern Europe... My research indicates there are beautiful cities, cathedrals, art. And in my childhood Poland was out of reach of most Americans, so there is a certain cachet slipping behind the curtain. So New Adventure, here I come!
But I can't really catalog my Polish adventure under the heading "Conversational Italian"... so I invite you to read "Just a Quick Detour" until I can find my way back to Italy.