favorites

if we're friends (and not just the facebook kind--though that is great, too), i'm sure at some point or another i've subjected you to conversations incorporating some of my favorite things. my favorite book (the overspent american), my other favorite book (bobos in paradise), my favorite blog (positively present), my favorite international aid blog (good intentions are not enough), my favorite coffee shop (bollos), my favorite brand of

tofu (twin oaks). okay, you get the point. apparently i feel the need to spread the propaganda, or, as i choose to see it, share the love. sorry peeps, this post isn't much different. it's about one of my favorite and most life-changing articles i've ever read, regrets of the dying (which you've likely already heard me incorporate into approximately 843 conversations). on account that you don't click on the link (though you really should), here's the summary. a woman who worked in pallative care interviewed her dying patients during the last months of their lives. and when she asked them about their regrets, these were the most common (in order). but first, a random thought--how much wisdom and life lessons do we miss out on living in a culture that does not honor our elders (right, laura b?). okay, the top 5 regrets...

1--i wish i'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. (most people died with half their dreams unfulfilled due to choices they made or did not make).

2--i wish i didn't work so hard (true for all the men interviewed--interesting!)

3--i wish i'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4--i wish i'd stayed in touch with friends.

5--i wish i'd let myself be happier. happiness is a choice.

so, it's the end of the year and people are reflecting on 2011. i, for one, know i am thrilled to say peace out to 2011 and gladly welcome all the newness 2012 offers (even if it includes the end of the world--thank you, mayan calendar). and i know this post really has nothing to do with guatemala specifically--it probably has more to do with being home for a week and being pretty bored. but i guess, in a way, it sort of does. i guess if i had i not read this article a year ago and made a vow to live a life true to myself, i likely wouldn't be headed to guatemala right now. a lot of you have asked if i am scared about all of this and what comes next, post-guatemala. the honest answer is yes, a little. but what i'm more scared about is making decisions based on fear.

about the same time i read regrets of the dying, i also read this in a manifesto from an amazing travel hacker in the art of nonconformity (yes, also a favorite. and yes, almost everything is my favorite). and that statement has sort of become the barometer for my decision-making as of late. and that statement is this. okay, there are two statements: "if you don't want the life other people have, you don't have to jump through

the hoops they set out for you." amen to that! and second, "in 20 years what will i regret more? having done this or having not done this?" so this friday i head out for the DR and onto guatemala from there.

if i don't talk to you before the new year, have a happy one! my wish for all of us is that we'll have the courage to live a life true to ourselves, whatever that looks like.

speaking of favorites, here's a little shout out to two of my favorite families in the burg (and floyd). your girls best not be dating and in high school the next time i see them.

adiós.

i have two goals in life. 1--learn to play the piano. 2--learn spanish. when i was 8 i tried the piano one. correction: my mom bought me a keyboard for christmas that year and told me it was, and i quote, "close enough" to a piano and i should start with that. pretty sure i taught myself two songs--"memories" from the musical cats and "heart and soul" prior to packing away the keyboard for life. now, some 20 plus years later, i think it's time for some spanish. i realize, as some of you have suggested, that something like rosetta stone would have been an easier route. but this past summer i met a new friend at a wedding (hi stef!) and we talked about our insatiable desires to travel and live abroad. stef also told me about her fantastic experience learning spanish through an immersion program in guatemala a few years ago. and i thought to myself, "wow, how cool. i wish i could do that." and then i thought, "wait, i can do that!" so chalk it up to a combination of my wonderlust with an unexpected conversation at a wedding, and the idea to learn spanish in guatemala was born.

there is this horrible joke. it goes like this. what do you call someone who speaks three languages? tri-lingual. what do you call someone who speaks two? bi-lingual. what do you call someone who speaks one language? american. true, no? and i was reminded of my american-ness about a month ago. a community organizer from columbia spoke at virginia tech and i sat in on the class he spoke in. let me just tell you, people in the world are doing freakin remarkable things--john henry's contribution is the founding of the small scale farmers movement in columbia to protect water, food, and land ownership rights from some not so nice big corporations trying to take stuff that's not theirs. so, after the talk i found myself chatting with the faculty member whose class i sat in on, john henry, and his interpreter from witness for peace (an amazing organization devoted to achieving peace and justice through changing trade policies in latin america and the caribbean). so, as you might suspect from my desire to go to guatemala, i do not currently speak spanish. honestly, the spanish your child might know from watching dora probably exceeds my current level. but still, i thought i'd give it the good ole fashioned college try. i figured i could at least start with something simple--say goodbye in spanish at least. and, as you may have guessed, that didn't go as planned. instead of adiós, or even goodbye in english, i busted out some high school french. yep. as soon as the au revior left my lips i knew what i said. and with that, my worst fear came true--i sounded like an ignorant american. of course, i then wanted to go into the corner and curl up and die. instead, we all just laughed. note to self: just because the words you speak are not english does not mean the person you are speaking to will understand you.

so yes, i realize i have just finished about all the schooling i think one human being can possibly complete (and far more than one ever should), and i probably should not be voluntarily signing up for more. but i am. i also realize some of you may be over there thinking to yourselves, "oh my god, is this girl ever going to get a job?" or, in the words of my not so subtle and slightly less politically correct friend, "get a damn job, hippie." but the way i see it, jobs will be there forever. plus, the united states is a ridiculously over-worked and under-vacationed country and i plan to do my part to change that! and, if truth be told, i do have some method to my madness. i'm hoping learning spanish will broaden my job prospects. or give me the ability to communicate with labor rights organizers and factory workers (i'm already figuring out how to get into some guatemalan factories-horray!). or raise little bi-lingual children. or all of the above.

as for the details of all of this, well, i don't really have them. i was thinking today how all my extended international travel has always been with someone else and has always been aranged by someone else (usually by a university that has offices devoted to these sorts of things). this time, i'm on my own. i do, however, know i'm going to move in with a local family and start my schooling here--at coopertiva spanish school (that translates to co-opertive in english if your spanish is on par with mine). but seriously, a co-op, owned by the teachers and a school where the money stays in the local community and isn't funneled back overseas--how fantastic is that!? so, at the end of december i'm headed out with molly to the dominican republic to visit her family (and for a vacation before my vacation, why not?). after that, its onto guatemala for a few months to learn some spanish (return date currently up for grabs). looks like i should have some internet access so will try to post some pics and blogs as i go. adiós.