5 weeks! It apparently
has taken me this long to get into the 2014 writing swing of things. I
apologize. I know you pay good money to read my thoughts and this won’t happen
again until I decided that I will stop writing all together. Since my last
post, I have triumphantly returned to Thailand because getting a full-time job
in Hong Kong proved a bit more difficult than expected. I had a great time
there and understood what my day-to-day life would be like. The high cost of
living and having to make a whole new set of friends was also a factor. You
should absolutely check it out but six weeks was a good amount of time and I
saw a decent amount of Hong Kong. I thought about whether to stay or to come
back more than almost any other decision I have ever made in my life. The
minute I was on the flight back to Thailand and saw Thai people speaking Thai
and wai-ing each other, I knew I made the right choice. Within 10 days I had a new job at a new school
in Nakhon, have a temporary place to live and couldn’t be happier about being
back.
Returning to this
Bangkok Shutdown protests has been fascinating. This is just a great place to
live. I was taking my class to the computer room about 3 weeks ago when I heard
cheering, kids screaming and whistles blowing. After we got downstairs, there were
kids everywhere, random people with huge flags and whistles who were trying to
shut down our school. It does not take much to shut a school down here. There
were probably less than 20 people but as anyone who has ever shut down a
government school before, all you need are some flags and whistles. We ended up
missing the next two days of school which I was very distraught about. I don’t
want to bore you with the politics of it all but basically there are red shirts
in the north that support the government and yellow shirts in the south who
think they government is corrupt (can you imagine?). I live in the south so I’m
essentially on whatever side won’t get me murdered.
“You guys protesting
something?”
“Yeah the government, what about you?”
“Ummm yeah, I hate the government too, let’s
all be friends!”
All of the districts
didn’t vote on Sunday so now they have to wait for those areas to vote and it
looks like none of this will be solved for a long time. I just hope I don’t
miss more school..
I haven’t given any life thoughts lately so I thought I would give
you a quick one. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about not being greedy. I’m
extremely happy to be back in Thailand but things are by no means perfect. My
$15 phone I’ve had for over two years is being kept together by blue duct tape.
I’ve been paid once since the middle of October. I am making less money now
than I was when I first got here. I am currently computer and family-less (my own family that I have made, I understand I have a 'real' family). Are these things to complain about? Probably
not. Even if I was making more money, I’d still want more. Even if I had a
better phone, I’d still want to upgrade it. Even if I had a cute baby girl, I
would just want a boy after that. There are only a handful of things I would
change about my life right now if I could and those things might not even make
me happy in the long run. I think that it is important that we are grateful for
what we have and understand that at no point will buying one more thing or
going one more place will leave us completely satisfied.
Let's play a game. Let's say I could give you anything in the world right now that would make you completely happy, what would it be? Think about it....I return in one month, are you still completely happy? What if I told you I could do it again? How long would it last this time? And this is with giving you things that you probably couldn't accomplish quickly on your own. And we are trying to buy happiness with things that are within our reach? Not likely.
Let's play a game. Let's say I could give you anything in the world right now that would make you completely happy, what would it be? Think about it....I return in one month, are you still completely happy? What if I told you I could do it again? How long would it last this time? And this is with giving you things that you probably couldn't accomplish quickly on your own. And we are trying to buy happiness with things that are within our reach? Not likely.
This doesn’t mean that
we shouldn’t try to improve our lives. Of course we should try to get a better
job if it would fulfill us to a greater degree but not just because you can
finish your new basement. Don’t break up with your boyfriend just because you
found a better looking one. Be happy that you can use your eyes to read a book
or use your ears to listen to music. Be happy that you have a friend would will
listen and eat dinner with you. Be happy that you can walk up and down the
stairs or that you can go outside and breathe fresh air. Be grateful that your
parents put up with you and raised you to the best of their abilities (thanks
mom!) Life is too short to always be searching for more and not being content. Life
is good. It really is. Sometimes it is easy to forget that. Be grateful.
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring
what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things
you only hoped for.”
-Epicurus
Article: http://markmanson.net/shut-up-and-be-grateful
Ted Talk about being grateful:
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful.html
