Quote: (08-15-2014 01:49 AM)TravellingSoldier Wrote:
Look at it this way Sonsowey. What did you take away from this trip? If you say you wouldn't change anything, your self-guilt justification trip is just your subconscious inflecting through societal eyes. If you enjoyed yourself, the only hang ups will be impartial's, "people must think..."
A few things are certain about your adventure:
- You learned about yourself, how to handle new situations and live within a foreign culture
-You survived on your own, presumably without family (most people tackle this with great difficulty)
- You learned Spanish... an obvious win. Girls see you as more traveled and Latinas will be more receptive in your home country
- You HELPED other people. Not very many people are willing to go to these places and teach their people English. You did a service and despite the sub-par work conditions did make some sort of difference.
Don't look at it through the subjective eyes of society and ask "Was this productive?", ask yourself what you want to do productively. If this journey was a tool to help develop your inner-self and learn more about what you want out of life, there is no way that your trip squandered any of your time. Our lives are so limited we cannot feel guilt about enjoying ourselves.
The only things we can do in our lives are: Improve our level of comfort and happiness, improve the level of comfort and happiness with those around us. Everything after these these are secondary. Plan to do big things in life but don't kick yourself for enjoying the little pleasures!
That's a great re-frame, well said!