Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Halfway Point. 45 more days until I'm home!

I'm halfway done with studying abroad. It's amazing how fast the past one and a half months has gone! For those of you who don't know, this is my first time away from home. So, obviously there have been so much that I have missed since being away.
  1. Family-I definitely really miss seeing my family. I think it's safe to say that I definitely took them for granted while I was at home. Being here has really helped me to see that I miss them and that I really need to work on spending more time with them when I'm not at school or at work, etc.
  2. Work- I love my job and I really work my butt off there. While it has been really nice to take this time off, I still really miss being around that atmosphere and I miss my coworkers. I'm definitely looking forward to going back in April.
  3. My team- It has been extremely hard to get motivated to practice on my own. I think this is probably one of the things I miss the most because being on my team is really important to me and I really miss being able to practice with them and of course being at meets (even if they last all day and take up my weekend). Nevertheless, I will be reunited April 8. 47 more days!
Of course, I have missed obvious things like my closet and my car. But, recently I've been doing some thinking on how I can really make this trip meaningful to me and I think I finally have the answer. Costa Ricans have a phrase that they say, "Pura Vida." The literal translation is pure life but here it is basically a way of life. It symbolizes the Costa Rican idea of letting things go and simply enjoying life. Basically, hakuna matata; no worries. This phrase started to really create meaning for me and my life. Materialistic things like clothes, my car, etc. don't matter any more. The important things in life to me are my family and my team and honestly as long as I have that I'm fine. I don't really need anything else. For the next 45 days, I definitely want to focus more on trying to live my life this way. I'm going to try to not be so attached to technology and just be in the moment. (Anyone who knows me, knows that this is going to be extremely hard but it will definitely be worth it.) I am also going to try to not make a big deal out of things. I tend to really over exaggerate when it comes to certain topics, so I definitely need to work on looking at the positives in situations. Finally, I need to focus on the present and not the future. Yeah, I have absolutely no idea what my plans are for my Senior year yet, or even what my plans are going to be in planning for after graduation. But, as long as I have my family, team, and friends around, then everything will work its self out.
 
Those are my thoughts for the day! Hope everyone back home is doing good!
Aracelis

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