Jamie Reflects

It's nearing the end of my time here. In fact, by the time this is posted my time will probably have already ended. So what have I learned? How have I grown?

Some people have the idea that traveling and living amongst strangers who are completely different from yourself helps you "find yourself." That you "grow as a person." I'm not really sure what either of those things are supposed to mean. I've definitely grown during all of my travels. My ass has grown. My muffin top has grown. My thighs have grown. But I don't know that my 'person' has. 

However, I do always learn a lot by traveling. 

So here's what I've learned:

A lot about Geography - Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan, Yerevan is the capital of Armenia. I could point out both of those countries and the Black Sea on a map. Couldn't do that before.

Turkish coffee, good. Turkish toilets, bad. 

I can't live without the internet. As much as you think your life would be better without it - I mean think of how much extra time you'd have if you didn't watch all those videos of babies laughing on YouTube or didn't stalk your ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend's facebook page every 5 minutes? Yes, it's true. I've read so many books here. And if I had been in a situation where I had other useful stuff to do I probably would have gotten so much of it done! But the truth is, in our society today, you have to be able to use the internet. Everything is done online. So much communication is done through email. Tickets are bought online, hostels are reserved online, jobs are applied to online. If you have a question about anything, you can find the answer online. When we think of how we use the internet, cat videos may be the first thing that comes to mind, but that's because we forget that we also used it to pay our bills and to check the weather and to RSVP to that thing, and to map out the easiest way to get from here to there, and, and, and... Once you don't have it, then you realize how much you need it. 

I've also learned that I'm not the only one. Sometimes I wonder what a job interviewer will think when they look at my resume. Individually all this stuff that I do - exchange in Germany, volunteering in Latin America, study abroad, teaching in Georgia, and now AmeriCorps- is good, experience, something unique that sets me apart. But I'm wondering how it all looks together. If I was an employer, I might look at it and say, "What is this girl doing? She's all over the place. Is it possible for her to do something for more than a year at a time?" And I don't know that it is. Yet. Hopefully someday I will want and have a bit more permanence in my life. But being here doesn't make me too worried about it, because like I said, I'm not the only one. I've met a lot of people here just like me, who just drift from place to place, seek out new adventures, and meet new people. And frankly, it's a good crowd to run with. 

And finally, I've learned that wine doesn't have to be sipped. Really, I mean who came up with that anyway?