Last week I went to an old high school friend's band show, the performance was great and the entire night turned into a great mini-reunion, I saw quite a few people that I haven't seen in years, all of whom I genuinely like. One of my old buddies, Paul, told me that he is about to embark on his own journey to teach english in Mexico City. Since I have been getting a bit nervous as my departure date is rapidly approaching I thought it would be nice to get together with Paul and talk to him about leaving the comfort of the bay and heading to a place where we knew no one.
We went to get frozen yogurt and he told me about his plans, he had bought a ticket to Mexico City (one way), has an interview but no solid job, and doesn't know where he's going to live yet and doesn't really know anyone that lives there. I was floored. Here I am, getting so nervous about going to a country with a concrete plan, and Paul is excited about his upcoming adventure. I started peppering him with questions, and finally asked, "aren't you worried about being lonely?" Paul shrugged, "I think it's more lonely here."
I was about to object when I thought about what he meant and realized how much an attitude can completely shape a person's experience. Here I was making myself completely worried about what might go wrong, while Paul was going in with low expectations and a laid back attitude. Also, in Korea, I'm expecting to have lonely moments, I mean it's inevitable that I'll have times where I miss home when I'm living in a country where I don't no anybody. When I'm at home, there are higher expectations that everything will be fun because a lot of my friends live around here and I know the area, so when life doesn't produce the fast paced excitement I am anticipating, then I get disappointed. In Korea, everything will be new so I don't really have any expectations yet.
I have to run to the post office, I'll update again if anything crazy happens.
