Challenges, challenges, challenges….coming into my sixth month in albania I’m facing a new kind of challenge…a new kind of distraction….myself...it’s like I’m taking care of a 4 year old kid that I keep telling no, but he keeps doing what I don’t want him to anyway…sorry mom, now I know what you must have felt like when you always asked me to do the dishes, and I said “no problem” and then never did them…
I’m trying to maintain a balance....some work, some play…and some nothing…just for my brain’s sake…but I’m currently struggling to find the balance…on occasion I can’t resist watching a good old American movie…I tell myself, well, I’ll watch about 30 minutes of a movie while I eat dinner…then two hours later I’m kicking myself…or I watch an American movie with Albanian subtitles to try a new form of “studying” only to realize thirty minutes into the movie that I look at the subtitles about once every 5 minutes...or how about telling myself I’ll wake up early in the morning to do my workout, that way in the afternoon I’ll have more time to spend our “IRB’ing” intentional relationship building….well, that doesn’t quite work at 6 in the morning when I’m cold, and convince myself that I’m tired and I should head back to bed so I’m not tired at work…or telling myself I’m going to write a blog when I get home from work, and upload it the next day, only to find that I haven’t done either…
Fortunately, the idea for this blog came up about a week or so ago when I was getting frustrated with myself and my lack of discipline…even more fortunate is the fact that so far I’m one day into my new found discipline….blog, done…morning workout, done…
when coming to Albania this wasn’t one of the challenges I expected to face, but I guess it makes sense…we’re at the “6-month” mark…the mark that is notorious for making volunteers head home…I didn’t think much of it prior to experiencing it…I haven’t truly wanted to go home..but I have noticed a struggle..not just within me, but within other volunteers….this six month thing is no joke…but I think we’ll get through it…one day at a time….tomorrow’s plan for discpline? – workout….review flash cards…add thirty new words… I’ll let you know how it goes…
btw, made it outside for some work....
Hang in there Jeffe! I have faith you're doing a great job with the immersion and soaking up the experience, so it's ok to give yourself a lil rest now and then too. Although, I will say to stay disciplined with the blogs...cuz I'm a fan of those haha.
ReplyDeleteya know what i think...
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You will learn the discipline and time management, Just hang in , as yo have quoted patience is a virtue.
ReplyDeleteThe rookie wall! You're good man, keep at it. I'm actually happy to read this post - aside from your short visit in Cali, you've been such a machine getting stuff done (i.e. work, study, relationship building, sleep, rinse, repeat) that's nice to hear you are getting a little 'you' time in.
ReplyDeleteEven God rested one day of the week ;)
Don't be so hard on yourself! Everyone deserves a good ol' American movie once in a while. Unless it's 'Glitter.'
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