I'm writing this from the train on my way back to Aix after our nine-day winter break trip to Brussels, Amsterdam, and Cologne, Germany. As a related (I promise it is related) side note, I just got my head stuck in between those “automatic” doors that separate the train cars and I cannot help but see it as a metaphor for life and perhaps more specifically, a metaphor for the challenges of this trip. Don’t get me wrong, the past nine days could not have been better spent. I could literally write a novel on everything that was so wonderful. But apart from the fun (of which much was had), I learned a thing or two from the times when not everything went smoothly.
For one, language is such a valuable skill. Pointing, nodding and shaking of the head can get you food, but it may not be anything remotely close to what you wanted/can even swallow. In Brussels, we got by with our French. In Amsterdam, we got by because most people speak English alongside Dutch. In Germany, we were so far from getting by. The distance between us and “getting by” can be approximated to be the same distance between Earth and Outer Space, which is suitable considering the fact that we were looked at as if we were aliens any time we asked for an English menu. Luckily, out of all of the jumbled up words that seem impossible to pronounce but I’m sure are what make German such a beautiful language, “tofu” is the same word in English as it is in German so life is not all that bad for this tofu-eating alien.
So, back to the head-squeezed-in-between-doors metaphor. Sometimes, life tests you. We couldn't communicate in Germany, we missed our train in Paris, but right as my life flashed before my eyes when the doors were closing in on one of my most vital organs, they opened again as if to say, “just kidding, you're fine!”. The truth is, I believe that things go wrong to teach us something. No matter how small the lesson may be, it is never insignificant. And if that makes me an optimistic, tofu-eating alien then so be it. I wouldn't have it any other way.
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May 2013
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