With roughly three weeks to go, I wonder where my last 10.5 months have gone. It's been, what I feel like the fastest year ever for me ... not just time wise, but for personal growth and professional development as well. I'm a bit anxious about leaving ... not having a job to go back to at this point, leaving some amazing people I have met, and reconnecting with "real life" back home. I'm sure I will have more to say about this once it happens!
So to help me grasp all the thoughts I have running through my head, I decided to make a list of things I will miss and will not miss ... and the things I'm looking forward to back home.
Things I will miss:
Things I will not miss:
I'll be spending the next few weeks finding "closure" on this experience and concentrating on opening new doors and keeping doors open in front of me. It's been a struggle to find a job back home and I hope that once I am home it will be a bit easier!
EDIT 13-03-2012: Have been finding it hard at work ... things that I thought would be easy to finish up have not been as I learn the deeper understanding of what I've been trying to teach and show the staff in the last year is not there. We can tell them what to do and how to do it, but as soon as they are left on their own to develop their own "how to", they're lost. I'm mostly referring to the development of plans. It is more than just a list of goals or tasks and needs to include processes on how to reach those goals or complete those tasks. I'm frustrated. I felt the month prior to this had been fantastic ... from successfully bulk uploading part of the team to the London Olympic eAccreditation system to the workshop on Zeus where Richard was here. It felt like we took some huge strides forward and now we've taken a giant leap backwards. Finding it hard to focus on the successes we have had. Finding it hard to just let it go and trust that they will eventually find their own way or that it's okay if they just don't get that far.
So to help me grasp all the thoughts I have running through my head, I decided to make a list of things I will miss and will not miss ... and the things I'm looking forward to back home.
Things I will miss:
- My fantastic SL friends who are some of the most welcoming and loving people I have ever met and have taught me to be more open to love and being loved
- Quiz nights
- Seeing the direct impact I have with work and the relationships within work.
- The drive from youth to learn - they take nothing for granted
- Weekend beach getaways, sunshine, and sunsets
- The beautiful scenery of this country
- The generosity and hospitality of most Sri Lankans
- Daily Skype chats with Seylankanda :)
- The compactness/density of the city. Just about everything is within walking distance.
Things I will not miss:
- The madness of Colombo
- Garbage burning
- The constant assault on my senses from honking, smells, and vehicles whizzing by
- Playing real life "Frogger" when crossing the street
- The smell of body odor (not on me)
- Sweating 24/7
- Stray dogs
- Significant gender inequality
Things I'm looking forward to back home:
- Moving forward in my career
- Fresh air
- Cleanliness
- Pedestrian right of way
- Snow
- Mountains
- Reconnecting with friends and making new connections
- Decluttering my life
- The concept of personal space
EDIT 13-03-2012: Have been finding it hard at work ... things that I thought would be easy to finish up have not been as I learn the deeper understanding of what I've been trying to teach and show the staff in the last year is not there. We can tell them what to do and how to do it, but as soon as they are left on their own to develop their own "how to", they're lost. I'm mostly referring to the development of plans. It is more than just a list of goals or tasks and needs to include processes on how to reach those goals or complete those tasks. I'm frustrated. I felt the month prior to this had been fantastic ... from successfully bulk uploading part of the team to the London Olympic eAccreditation system to the workshop on Zeus where Richard was here. It felt like we took some huge strides forward and now we've taken a giant leap backwards. Finding it hard to focus on the successes we have had. Finding it hard to just let it go and trust that they will eventually find their own way or that it's okay if they just don't get that far.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Sri Lanka? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Sri Lanka in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely