This past weekend I spent in NYC visiting a best friend of mine and taking in the Halloween and October atmosphere. This is one of the better times of year to spend in the City. The weather is cool, alleviating the stench magnified by too much heat and too much asphalt, and the crowds of the Holiday season haven’t yet begun. It’s funny because for all the things one hears about New Yorkers being up tight they certainly seem to love Halloween. Stores windows and interiors of bars and restaurants are elaborate and ghoulishly decorated to the max. Halloween is a time to let loose a bit and get silly and the City embraces it, capping it off with their Sunday night parade, which I unfortunately was unable to attend.
Being in The Big Apple and talking with my buddy about the possibility of moving there and finding a job got me thinking a lot about my next step in life. Well the last thing I ever imagined myself doing is now at the top of my list-moving back in with my parents… I graduate in December and could go in any direction. Denver, Austin, Dominican, teach English abroad, I’ve got a new plan every day. Bartending has been good to me, in and out of the profession now for the past four years. I feel like I need to make some moves away from it though however enticing the cash is for a broke college student, soon to be grad.
After graduation people seem to go one of three ways: get a job and start working up, are direction less and fail to make use of an expensive education, or take a bit of well deserved time off to travel. Classic post grad indecisiveness is beginning to set in. Remarkably, I am not to distraught about it and am looking forward to maybe living with my parents and little brothers for the last time in my life, and in a coordinated fashion, mindfully planning out my next step. Whether that means applying and interviewing for that “perfect” job (which I know exist and I’m never going to give up on finding), going back to the Dominican and working on my Spanish (no more wasting $ on classes where its been impossible for me to learn), or taking off on that bicycle tour around the states that I’ve always imagined myself doing, I think that moving back to Lames to set myself up with a clean and clear path is the way to go.
The past umm…five years my life has been non-stop, bouncing in and out of the country, taking internships, volunteering, visiting friends, training for triathlons, practicing yoga, going to therapy, bartending, baby-sitting, selling my plasma, dropping out of school, getting my massage therapy license, going back to school, and I figured I was going to top off my last semester with a cherry. Now I’ve had some pretty freakin’ amazing experiences, especially in the last six months, but all that running around I found myself without my menstruation, injured, scared, and ultimately with mononucleosis-for the second time! Just as I though I was getting better last week, and about to be unstoppable once again with super-human immunity, I caught a virus. Luckily, I made it through the weekend and was able to enjoy my trip to the fullest; however, I’m back to feeling nauseous, vomitty, and my stomach is gurgling. Grrr. It will past my dear, these things will pass. I keep telling myself. I’ve always held a good amount of pride in my health but that’s been severely damaged now as well.
What’s been very difficult for me, as I’ve come to learn is the case for many, is the ability to really listen to my body when it sends me signs of needing rest. I would consider myself a high-energy person and it’s been hard for me to be weighted down with these afflictions.
