Russian Resolutions......

Well, as most of the people that read this severely neglected project know; I'm back in Russia until some time this summer...I'm not really sure when. I'll write the story about my 47 hour escapade from Portland to Yekaterinburg another time. I don't know if I can write about it without an attack of PTSD.

For 2012 I made exactly zero resolutions for myself, they never work anyway...Plus I don't think any of them have been important, frankly I can't remember the ones I made for 2011. I bet I stuck with every damn one of them and succeeded with flying colors.

Although, despite my awesomeness I realized: It would make more sense if on December 31st we made backwards resolutions, and just pick the things we did well. Instead of signing yourself up for failure, just pat yourself on the back for something you did over the course of the year that wasn't terrible. For example: You gained twenty pounds over prior 364 days, you can be happy you didn't gain 30lbs. Now if you had made a resolution to lose weight? You failed pretty hard, disappointing huh? 

 Aren't you so proud?

 If you make a backwards resolution, sure you gained 20lbs but hey at least you aren't that guy. Right?

However I'm going to not reflect on 2011, I missed that boat...It's time to move on to 2012 Baby! So instead of New Years resolutions, I'm going to make Russian resolutions. A Russian resolution doesn't have the same have the same self-esteem crushing impact of a New Years resolution when it fails. You may ask yourself why? The answer is pretty simple, if it's Russian, what are the odds that it is destined for success?

   This lasted right??

So for my Russian resolutions:

1) To pay more attention to my blog, or start writing it so poorly that no one cares when I miss a post.

2) Learn enough Russian to be able to order sushi or pizza for delivery.

3) Make a website or Facebook page for at least 3 of my classes.

4) Keep my apartment mostly clean.

5) Do my laundry much more often than I did last year, even if it does suck washing it by hand.

6) Unlock my iPhone

7) Get glasses and or contacts

8) Successfully accomplish a minimum of one of these, I can live with a 14.5% rate of success.

We'll see how it goes......

What would you say?

  I was thinking tonight, while I was cooking dinner; If I were to go back in time ten years and tell my thirteen year old self that, "In ten years you'll be living in Russia working as an English teacher." What would I have responded with? Well the answer is easy, If when I was 13 my 23 year old self came and talked to me, the ESL teacher in Russia thing wouldn't phase me....I'd be too @&#^#^$ freaked out to care what I was telling myself, and if you think differently, you're wrong. Of course I'd get over the shock, and eventually be able to have a conversation with myself....maybe. Really the happenings of this hypothetical conversation aren't what's important, what is important, is taking a minute to sit back and think, "If ten years ago, I knew this is where I would end up, would I be okay with it? Or would I change something to end up somewhere else?" 

 So, I'm 23 living in Russia and working as an English teacher....glorious huh? What else could I have been doing?

• If I had worked harder in school, maybe I'd have my degree. 
• If I had my degree what would I be doing? I might be working as an Ed Tech III, or if I was lucky I'd be a long term sub.
• Would I be happy if I was working either one of those jobs? Probably, because I wouldn't know any better. Besides, what's the point of being miserable?
• If I had my degree and was working full time, I'd probably have an apartment, a car, bills, and I'd be a grown up. 

Luckily for me, when it came to budgeting time at UMM, academics weren't my first priority. Sure, my GPA is eh, I'll have lots loans - but not more than every one else, I wasted money on classes I did poorly in. and again - my GPA sucks. So what? It's just a number. I still have time to go back, finish my degree and be an adult. The important thing, is that instead of taking the 4 years of college then getting a job...I moved to Russia. Russia isn't perfect, but no place is. I'm happy, I love teaching, but I'm still figuring things out...and the last place I want to be is in the real world struggling to make ends meet. So going back to the beginning of this, frankly I don't care what my thirteen year old self would say, or for that fact anyone else. In my short time on this planet, I've already figured this much out; If you aren't happy with yourself, you won't be happy at all. So, moral of the story, be happy with your choices, and don't waste time thinking about what would've happened if you'd done one thing instead of another... I'll leave you with this poem that I live by:

Robert Frost (1874–1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.	20