Do you know those people who are like secretly insanely talented. They don’t tell anyone or show it off much, so no one knows. I think about my freshman year college roommate, Tia. She would hype me up for being a musician or speaking some Spanish, and then one day I found her playing Mozart on the dorm piano and basically fluently conversing in Spanish. I think of my music pals in Colorado, Brian and Lacey. Once again, they are hyping people up for being a musician, a runner, a rock climber, etc. Only later did I slowly learn each of them has worked about 1000 different jobs, plays 20 different instruments, runs marathons casually on the weekends, etc. There are people like this EVERYWHERE! Meanwhile, I am calling my mom and am like…. “mom mom tell me my new song I wrote is good!” .

Anyways, one receptionist, Eze, at the hostel was another example of this. I was cooking (or burning?) when he offered some much needed advice. I learned he LOVES to cook. (I have been cheffing for him and the others these makeshift pasta dinners and frozen pizzas😅) Then, one day, Eze was telling a visitor about my guitar playing. Later, I found out that he is actually a real musician, working sometimes as a DJ and writing his own music on guitar. I told him about going to Tenerife to surf. He loves to surf in his free-time. I was like dude… what do you not do?!

He said he has 3 THINGS for his happy life: Sports, Music, Nature.

I have thought about that a lot recently. It is similar to the value based living that I learned about when I was in therapy, but it is a little different, maybe a little more fun then values. So… What are my 3 things?

1. Nature ☀️🏕️
2. Music 🎵🎸
3. Authentic Connection ❤️🤝

Maybe that will change. It probably is supposed to change overtime. For now, it is kind of a cool idea that instead of worrying about what will bring me happiness, save the world, fulfill my life purpose, etc, I could just focus on those 3 things. It is especially important right now because I had some recent travel changes, leaving me without a plan. The lack of plan has led to anxiety and indecision. I am back and forth on whether to try and sneak in more adventures in Europe or to go home, reconnect with family and friends and see what adventures await me there. The idea of ending my traveling is sad, but also I have learned so much in the past 5 months, and I especially learned that this doesn’t have to be my one and only travel adventure. In fact, I want to do this again but use the lessons I’ve learned to make it even better! Regardless, while I figure this out over the next few days, I want to focus on the fact that whether I am in Ireland, Germany, UK, Norway, Spain, Florida, Colorado, etc. I can continue to focus on my 3 things to bring about new wonderful experiences and adventures wherever I am!

More updates soon to come, and also I am going to post a fun post about all the things Juliette and Laura and I got into, but I thought I would at least start here.

This is a recording of Eze playing some really peaceful guitar melodies he wrote while we played pool that the other volunteer, Alina got:)