How do we define life?

I took a class in college with one of those professors that's so passionate about what they teach that their energy just infects you. "KMK" is someone I won't ever forget. She opened my eyes,my mind and challenged me to think outside the box, outside of how I had ever seen the world before. Her approach to teaching and the ultimate lessons I learned, literally caused me to see the world in a different way; in a way that I wasn't used to.

The class was called "Intro to Disability Studies". It was the first class of the semester that KMK handed out her syllabus with the fonts printed out in EXTRA LARGE,and then EXTREMELY tiny. Of course I was picked randomly(out of the class of 80)to read the tiny printed syllabus. Confused as hell as to why the print on my syllabus was so tiny..I just plugged through it and read it the best I could, stuttering and all. No one laughed thank goodness(I mean I would hope people would be mature enough not to laugh at the ages of 21 and 22, but ya never know). After reading the tiny printed syllabus and then seeing others struggle through reading the HUGE font syllabus (it was one letter per page...for 60 pages) we all kind of sat there. It was really quiet in the room, EXTREMELY hot AND...we were all shoved into a room that said "legal limit, max 20 people"- there were 80 of us in there...on top of each other. After an awkward silence, we came to find out KMK shoved us in this room and printed the syllabus off to MAKE us feel uncomfortable, to make us feel "disabled" and feel a bit of struggle in a "normal" day. She wanted us to be in the shoes of someone who lives EVERY day with daily struggles and inconveniences because of how society does not cater enough to making life "accessible". Anyways, that STUCK WITH ME...and will forever.

The point of my post today is how we "define life". It was in this class that KMK asked each student to answer a list of questions and then share the answers to the rest of the class. One question stood out to me. "Is life defined by tragedy or miracles?" Well, upon reading this question I automatically thought "miracles" duh, "what negative people would define life by tragedy???...as the semester wore on and I heard more and more classmates answer "Tragedy defines life" I began to change my answer. I realised that without the BAD times we would not be able to appreciate the good times. It's like that old saying "We can't appreciate the sun without experiencing the rain". This could not be truer to life. With some recent "tragic" things happening to some dear friends, it has only caused ME to realise how amazing my life is. How lucky and well off I really am. Of course I have my bad days; my "rainy days", but it is NOTHING I can't get over or move on from. I have also come to realise that no matter what, someone else some where is having a harder time than me.

Now you can take this in one of two ways, a. you can feel lucky and better that someone else some where is having a shitty day compared to you, or b. you can decide to be grateful for all you have and in the meantime make someone else's day a little brighter; smile at a stranger, buy Starbucks for a friend...do something for someone!

Life isn't necessarily DEFINED by tragedy, but what I know for sure is that we need to have good and bad times, we need negativity and positivity in life. It's all about moderation right? We can so easily get caught in our own problems and focuses that we forget about what the person standing next to us...the person on the bus, the person serving us food...or even our best friends are going through. I have learned this lesson EXTRA well in the past few weeks. There are so many people I love who are dealing with way more difficulties than I am. I feel as though I haven't been there enough for these friends and for that I am sorry. I have been too focused on my self and my imminent journey that I have almost not "seen" these people. So my pledge to you all (hopefully you are reading this) is that I will be here for you from now on.

In closing, for any one reading this that IS struggling with some "tragedy" atleat you know...a "sunny day" is on it's way, someone else is struggling MORE than you... and helping another is a great way to feel better automatically. Alright, enough OPRAH session for the day!

Happy FRIDAY TO ALL! I am 24 tomorrow- YIKES( well, someone, somewhere is turning 30 right? or 60..or 80?). I'll take 24 any day!

It's Twenty Ten!

Happy new year to everyone!! Hope your nights were full of fun, family and friends like mine! No better way to bring in the new year than with the people you love around you, lots of bubbly and AWESOME danceable music. The second the clock hit midnight,I got a really intense feeling that this was going to be a FABULOUS, exciting and very different year for me. I am one year out of college, one year experienced in the job world and one year closer to finding what I want to do with my life. Although for some that can take a lifetime, I think this trip to Argentina is going to help me find my place in the world. (Nothing wrong with hoping right?)

As I was sitting on my couch today with my hangover food, my hungover friends, actually WATCHING "The Hangover" haha, we got to talking about new years resolutions. My friend Jess had a great one that got me SO excited for the next chapter in my life. She said "This year I plan to take more risks". I love that. She then proceeded to say, that anything she ever did that was "risky" or adventurous has never turned out to be a bad experience. I completely agree. Looking back on the things I have done in my life that were "risky" seemed to turn out to be amazing experiences. It's similar to that famous quote: "Sometimes the things you fear the most end up being the most worthwhile". I couldnt agee more. This year I plan to take more risks as well, what do I have to lose? Nothing. With every new risk, or scary decision comes a new experience, and something to learn from.

The trip that I am about to take wil be my "Risk number one" for the new year twenty ten!

Blackberry

I felt it quite fitting to write about the Blackberry Outage that occurred on Tuesday, seeing as my last post was all about societies "committed relationships" with their technology pieces. In all honesty, it did not really bother me that much. I will admit there were a few people I tested it out with, aka the people sitting next to me to see if BBM worked..which it didn't, but I got over it pretty quickly. I realised..it's kinda liberating to not be in CONSTANT contact 24/7 and it was kinda liberating to have been snowed in all weekend as well(although I did get cabin fever). Sometimes we need things to get in the way of our daily lives. It helps us remember we don't have control of everything, life isn't always going to go just as it did the day before. I am okay with this realization, although annoying at times..I can definitely handle it. That's all for today..back to work!

staying current

Thanks to my first and only follower, Christina and to the movie "Julie and Julia", I decided I needed to get the ball rolling on this "blog stuff". It's a little intimidating to sit here and stare at a blank document that's waiting to be filled with "thoughts, theories and things", but I need to start at some point right?

I guess my topic for today will be the acceptance of technology. I like to think that I am old fashioned and traditional, so when new ipods, iPhone, blackberries, blogs, links, listserves, cars, and other crazy high-tech objects and computer things come out into the world, I am always a little turned off and "anti" at first. I think to myself- what if I randomly ended up on a deserted island and had to survive on my own? I like to think that i could build my own fire..kill an animal for food ..(yea right, I'm a vegetarian) and make due with my natural human instincts, but in the world we live in, we are so dependable on things that make our lives easier - it worries me. I hate the fact that I can't live without my ipod and cell phone- if either were to break , be stolen, get lost or God forbid run out of battery on that "deserted Island"...I would be MISERABLE.
Regardless of my old-fashioned approach, I need to keep up with the ever changing world and accept what is. So, here I am...starting slowly, aka "blogging".

Hopefully, in weeks, months and years to come- if I DO keep up with this "blogging gig" I will know how to have an interesting "profile". I will be able to add pics, links and other fun things that all those experienced bloggers have on their pages, but until then I will obviously keep it a little simple so I'm not overwhelmed.

I am not sure how many people will read this blog, or what my blog personality will even be... but it's kinda thrilling to know that I can say what I want and someone, somewhere out there may take interest and actually listen (or read in this case) to what I have on my mind. I got numerous thoughts running around every second...and sometimes there are so many things I want to say and do but can't form coherent sentences. I am hoping that my blog will be a nice outlet for me to "get out" what I want to say and do and people will either be inspired or fascinated with all I have going on in my mind!

Intro

Hello and welcome to my Argentine blog. I have a few more months until I officially leave, but I wanted to get started on the setup of this whole thing, especially since I am not high-tech at all and seem to always be confused with computer universes. This is a huge thing for me...

Moving on, I am moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina on February 4th, 2010. I will be going through a program called "Road2argentina" and will be taking classes for one month in order to be TEFL certified. Once I am TEFL certified "Road" will assist me in finding a teaching job in BA. I plan to stay there for 6 months or more and hope to update this thing throughout.

Stay tuned!