The General Specific

I'm taking advantage of a little bit of insomnia to catch up on my blog writing.

I meant to write much earlier about the amazing Thanksgiving food my friends and I made, but it seems like it's a little late now to talk about spicy pumpkin soup, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, apple cobbler, brownies and rosemary chicken in lieu of a turkey...man that was some good stuff. Whoops.

So I can fast forward to my birthday, which seemed surprisingly fitting given that I'm growing up (at least that's what the numbers say. The jury is still out. I'll let you know). I went to school and had some lovely surprises from my students and a small supra thrown by the teachers. I now have more stuffed animals than I know what to do with and some beautiful flowers gracing my table protruding from some classy plastic bottles. Hey, we can't all have fancy Waterford vases, you know. Or any vases at all, for that matter.

Then I was lucky to have a couple of my friends who live close by drop by for sloppy joes, macaroni and cheese, and brownies. If you're seeing a theme here, it's because by year two of the PC experience, when you have a chance to grab American food, you tend to take it. And yes, I do love having my own place so my friends can help me make it. Then we played some Jeopardy, watched Arrested Development, talked a little and called it a night. It was small and quiet, but nice. I also really appreciated the love I got from the other side of the world, which never fails to make me smile and sometimes even shed a tear or two. Thank you.

As I turn another year older and my experience here in Georgia seems to be coming down the home stretch, I can't help but think back to before I applied for Peace Corps (seems like a lifetime ago), when I thought to myself that I'd be 26 when I made it through. Back then I was worried about feeling like I'd be practically a real adult (read: old), coming out of a situation in free-fall. Has that changed? To be honest, I'm not sure. Twenty-six seems old and not so old, and I feel like I have options for when I make that landing somewhere on US soil next summer.

It certainly hasn't been easy, this experience. Not that I thought it would be, but it's difficult in ways I didn't expect. Now as we approach the holiday season, I'm truly excited to attend my beautiful cousin's wedding in Argentina in a short time, see some of my family, and wander some places I've never been before...But I'm also ready for a break. Sometimes I feel like I have things together here, and other times I feel like if I have one more emotionally trying day I might lose a piece of myself forever somehow. I've learned some particularly difficult lessons since I arrived-the most difficult being that not everything has a solution. I grew up thinking that with a little work I could fix most things, and it generally worked out that way. But here I learned that sometimes things don't work out. And you have to be okay with it and move on to the things that are within your power to fix.

So with the remaining time I have left I'm going to try my very hardest to relax, take deep breaths, be thankful and happy. Against all odds I'm going to try a little less thinking and stewing on things and a little more taking in all the good things that life has thrown my way.

I know this post was a bit (okay...a lot) more serious than my usual internet one-way conversations, so thanks for sticking around if you did. I'd like to end on some fantastic advice from Lao Tzu, which I stole from my good friend Nathan (Happy birthday, Nathan!)

“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

Love,

Lauren