So as I’ve mentioned we are staying in a pretty sweet apartment this month! It’s so beautiful and seems like the most luxurious place I’ve ever seen when in actuality other than the 3 bathroom part it’s pretty typical but after 6 months of limited furniture and space, it’s like staying at the Plaza!
A few days ago I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth, checking my hair for paint when I realized the ease with which I was using the mirror. Now that may seem like a crazy sentence but fun fact about the world is they apparently don’t feel the need for mirrors like Americans do! Most of my previous homes didn’t have a mirror and the few that did had small ones that didn’t really show anything. It became kind of a joke on our team about how weird it would be to be back in the States and actually know what we looked like at any given time. And in that moment I realized it wasn’t weird at all. I didn’t think twice about using that mirror every day (multiple times a day actually—though the look in the evenings was to make sure I’d gotten all the paint off in the shower!). I just jumped right in.
And I started thinking about how easy it’s probably going to be for me when I get home. Something I’ve always found super helpful about myself is I’m an adapter. When I graduated high school and went to college I didn’t have the typical homesickness or problems missing friends. I just jumped in feet first and never looked back. That part of my personality has been a huge help to me on the race.
But I don’t want it to be easy to go back. Now don’t get me wrong, I also don’t want it to be super hard. If I could avoid the whole crying in the cereal aisle at a store thing, that would be ideal. But I also don’t want to just jump feet first into the “good old” life and never look back.
So I stared to worry a bit. What if this whole year is for nothing?! What if I get back to America and I now have some great stories to share but that’s it. And then Ginny and I sat down and had such a good talk. A mirror is just a mirror and yeah I’ll probably just get right into using it again but how I look at myself in the mirror will be different. Because of the race I’ll no longer hate what and who I see. When I get home I’ll still want to hang out with friends and go out for coffee and good conversation but because of the race I’ll now be more intentional about encouraging and calling up my friends then bringing others down through gossip. I’ll also make sure my money is going to more than just fun and frivolous things (though some will still be going to Dunkins regularly—I mean let’s be honest!)
Me saying hello in the mirror–trust me I'm way dirtier than you can tell in this picture!
