Welcome to the first installment of my adventures! I'm super excited to get started and I hope you're ready for the ride because you are joining this program already in progress! I'll admit, it's not a lot of progress, but I have done a few things here and there.
The past 3 years have been insane and for some it was great, for most it was awful. For me it was a mild inconvenience that left room for self reflection, self sabotage but also growth. I don't mean the homestead garden I tried to plant, because all I was able to grow were green beans, so that was a bust. However I did learn a lot while I was trapped in a box for 3 years and some AMAZING things came from it.
I have an amazing boyfriend ( we will call him TAH) .
I have grown closer to my God.
I have learned to stand up for myself in a lot of new ways.
I have found beauty in the impermanence of life.
Over the next 6 months THA and I are preparing for a HUGE adventure and a life changing experience.
We are moving to Korea! South.. not North.
In 2019 I left my small town Georgia home and moved to Korea to teach English and
I stayed there for a year on the island of JeJu. It was hard, but lovely. I was lonely there and got very sick but I've come to miss my time there. It was a much more manageable life. I came home March of 2020, 5 days before the world shut its airports along with most other things and just barley missed being trapped in England with no home, no one I knew and no job.
To say I'm grateful would be a massive understatement. To say that my mother, a nurse, was relieved would be an even bigger understatement. Regardless, I made it home and I stayed home, able to live off of my savings for the time it took me to find a remote job teaching English online. It was a hard job, mostly because of that hours and I was still having health issues I brought home with my from Jeju.
Being lonely was still an issue
My mother worked 6 days a week, 17 hour days and had to keep her distance in the house when she was home. It was rough. Part of the reason I came home was because I was lonely and missed my people. Then I came home and I was FORCED to be apart from them even though they were down the street from me. On the positive side, I was being pulled close to God at this time and was able to deeply feed into my spiritual health. I have now come to miss that time I had to sit and rest and search myself. To look for God and the Spirit.
Eventually my mother and I came to an agreement that she would get the opportunity to travel because travel nurses were at a premium and for the last 2 years that she was still working it would benefit her the most to be making the most money she could before she retired. So I stayed home and watched the dogs and took care of the house while she traveled around like a modern day super hero, healing the sick and putting herself in harms way.
Now we are 6 months from time for me to go back out into the world and work on my life, and for her to slow things down and enjoy her retirement. which means she will have to learn how to chill out. Not her strong suit, as she raised my older brother and I alone from the time we were babies. She doesn't know how to sit still, but she will learn how to be actively at rest. I'm excited for her and myself too!
Over the next 6 months I will be working on a lot of things but specifically these 3 goals:
Health. I had a hard go of it the last time I was in Korea and I want to try and have a game plan or possibly even eliminate the issues I was having. Some of it is weight related and while I'm not doing a big " My Weightless Journey" type thing, I'm definitely going to be working on my SIZE and body composition. One thing I have learned in my life , because I've never ben slim, is that 200 pounds of muscle and 150 pounds of " not muscle" look totally different and make you FEEL different. Fat holds toxins and hormones. If you have more fat than you have other tissues/ bone, you're going to have all sorts of issues, even if you're a side 8.
Goal 1: Work on body size and composition. I need to fit in the plain seat comfortably and not ask for a belt extender or spill out into the space of the people sitting next to me.
Communication. I learned a little bit of Korean while I was there last time, but this time I am STUDYING!
나는 í•œêµì–´ë¥¼ 천천히 ë°°ìš°ê³ ìžˆì–´ìš” ( I am studying Korean slowly). I have gotten to the point where I can read the alphabet well, I know a decent amount of words and I'm working on the basic structure.
Goal 2: Expand my Korean vocabulary. I want to be able to understand what I'm reading on signs and menus. When it comes to communicating with people, I feel like I can use my translation apps a bit more, but being able to read subway maps, menus and signs will vastly increase my ability to function.
Divine connection. I don't believe there is ever going to be a time where any of us, at lest on this plane of existence, will NOT need to make time to strengthen our connection with God. Now I am a Christian and I know that's not super popular but It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man and it's important to keep a close and open connection to your source no matter which one you choose.
Goal 3: make a time and a place to study, pray and just BE with God.
The plan is to use this blog as a giant database, where anyone that is looking to better themselves, travel, learn new things or just be entertained can come and find something. Long term goals I will open this up to contributors that have different things they are working on in their lives and can bring new advice/ experiences. I feel like people learn from watching other people who are living out their goals and actually DOING things. We learn better from our peers who are maybe a few steps ahead of us, but not so far past the point we are, than from people who are essentially teachers; having already accomplished the goal. They are hard to relate to .We don't see the struggles they face or how they cope with it in the moment . A HUGE part of being successful is how you handle failure. Anyone can be successful if they never face failure, but that's not reality. As your peer, I hope we can learn together.
My plan
Fridays: I will make a post of what my meal plan, source material and link to products I'm trying out.
Saturdays: I will share the results of my meal prep and also my Spiritual study for the day.
Wednesdays: I will share my Korean language studies.
Once a month: I will do a " brain dump" type post where I share a new adventure , pictures, fun things, etc...
Today is Friday, so later this evening look forward to a post of food, meal prep and products I'm planning to try out.
I'm ready to get going!!! Are you coming along?