I will Survive

I think there comes a time in everyone's life where they realize that they truely will make it in life. When and where this moment happens can't really be determined. Only the person will know. For me I can honestly say that yesterday was my day.

We take so much for granted, especially in America, that our vision is a clouded one. You can't realize what you have until you reach for it and meet nothing. Lets take a breif flashback to Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes Sunday. The recipe called for melted butter. That's simple enough; just pop it in the microwave and nuke it for a few seconds. Oh, wait, there is no microwave. Now for the mashing part. I'll just toss the potatoes in the Kitchen Aid and let it do all the work. Now where did that Kitchen Aid go... Fast forward a bit. Something so typical that we don't think twice about - an iron and ironing board. Who doesn't have one?? The Bech's (my host-family), that's who. So how exactly am I to wear a pair of slacks?? Well, I suppose my hair straightner could double as an iron....

It's times like these when you are able to take a step back and realize that if I can use a hair straightner for an iron then I can survive in today's world. And then looking back it dawns on you that you have been surviving. Using the sleeping bag to block out the light and the extra umbrela to plug the skylight - these are all times when you managed to survive. And then you think of the time that you successfully tweezed your eyebrows in the reflections of your cell phone becuase your too cheap to buy a mirror for you room. I think we tend to doubt our abilities.

Being and exchange student is truely your first opprotunity to get a taste of the real world without having to stuff your mouth. There is still the security of some parental support, but not in the sense of what we are use to. Everything we think we need and everything we know we need, has to be decided by no one other than ourselves. Here you don't have mommy and daddy to run home to. It's just you, a pocket dictionary, and the big bad world.