Sometimes I think I am still in the three year old mentality of believing that everyone is just like me. Everyone thinks like me, reacts like me, feels like me, and needs the same type of encouragement that I do. For example, I tried to take a friend of mine through an exercise that my mom took me through a few years back. It is supposed to help the person discover their perfect job. Part of the exercise is writing down a few BIG dreams. When I did this a few years ago, my list looked like: be a missionary in Israel, help with AIDS patients in Africa, be a great mom to 7 or 8 kids, and be an English teacher in a high school (I guess I have kinda fulfilled the last one!). But when my friend did the exercise, I didn't feel like they were dreaming BIG enough. Anyways, I pushed and pushed and eventually made my friend upset. And then it hit me, this exercise will not encourage everyone. For me it helped me realize what my dreams were. It encouraged me to go for those dreams. But for others, this exercise might not work the same way. My mom instilled in me a passion to live out my crazy dreams, but some people don't want that. Some people are not made to have crazy dreams. They have nice normal safe dreams. And I am begining to realize that it is good for them to have those types of dreams and it is good for me to have my type of dreams. This may seem basic to those of you who are reading this, but for some reason (like I said earlier) I tend to stick to the three year old mentality. Slowly, but hopefully surely, I am maturing.
I live near a long thin park called Parque Forestal. It's really quite a nice park and it has a long stretch of a lane for riding bikes or jogging. And since I have a fear of riding bikes in this city, I jog. It's really pleasent. I usually listen to radioDisney on my mp3 player and jog along to Jonas Brothers, Beyonce, or Julieta Venegas. Great stuff. Yesterday on my jog I noticed that the trees were beginning to change. Fall has finally arrived and I am glad for the change. But as I was jogging through the falling leaves, I began to think about how much I like fall. And I had this special moment when I realized that I want to be here in Santiago, jogging through this park for many falls to come. After the past few weeks of cultural adjustment being a little more painful than normal, this was a nice thought to have.
Comments
the insight you expressed in this blog is important. not everyone is just like us. but there are great commonalities among all of us.
the problem you encountered is not with the exercise (identifying the big dreams) -- it's with how you interpreted the exercise. the dream that is true for your friend might seem uninteresting to you (i.e., not big enough), while it's perfect for your friend!
i'm very proud of you!
love
mom