When life gives you a challenge...take your shot

Now imagine a shot glass of tequila and the quarter of a lime. Actually, don't worry about picturing it, here is a picture...
 

Takes me back to college when I had that exact poster in my dorm room. I didn't learn much from it then, other than the saying is actually kind of great and the picture had to do with drinking, so naturally as a college freshmen it was perfect. I never would have imagined that writing my first blog post about my adventure this poster would be so inspirational. Life can really kick you in the face sometimes and honestly, it’s hard to know where to go when it happens. Kicks to the face come from a lot of different places and in different forms. Unfortunately for me it was a kick to the face from a horse, maybe a Clydesdale, the Budweiser kind, majestic, with a Dalmatian as a best friend...straight to the face and out of the blue. But lucky for me it was big enough to push me out of my comfort zone and into a making a decision that I wouldn't regret.

I started looking at life as an au pair several years ago but never believed enough in myself or my future to pursue it. In June all that changed and I made the decision to become an au pair...IN FRANCE!!! France is kind of amazing, from books and the internets, pictures and even my textbooks, which is all I can base my judgments off of having never been there. I took French all through high school and even some in middle school. So while I was trying to learn the language we also learned a lot about the culture, the music, the art, the food!!! So, France, I decided. The two weeks following these decisions were intense. Building a profile on a website (https://www.aupair-world.net/) and trying to market and sell myself to strangers, all while they were doing the same thing. How many kids could I care for? Where did I want to be? Did I want a single parent home? Could I handle children with disabilities? It was all so much to take in. My anxiety was at an all-time high but I still did it. I had interviews via Skype with several families, exchanged many emails, and finally decided on a family. Now, don’t get me wrong, this seems so much easier then you think, or maybe just when I thought; but once you get into the thick of it you see all the work that it takes. For example, I was also looking in the UK but as it turns out the visa situation there for Americans is far too much to deal with. France also has a lot more rules and requirements than other countries, such as Germany, but it is still very feasible. There is an amazing blog written by a Florida girl that my dad actually stumbled upon and she goes into great detail about the financial costs and the exact experience of all the paper work. Go check out her blog for that information (http://iminparisgonoles.blogspot.com/) and on the right side of her page she has three posts specifically for what’s going to happen once you make the decision.

This post is something I put together at the half way point; half way between making the decision/finding a family and the time that I will be leaving to embark on this ridiculously amazing journey. In the past weeks I have learned so much about myself and about life; none of which has really been easy to swallow, but it is time to live AND learn. “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”  ― John Dewey. Even at 27 years old quitting "real" work in my home country to take a low paying job in a place I have never been is the risk of a lifetime. When will I EVER be able to do this again? At any point? Never. One day I hope to be married with a family and I will be going to work to do a job so that I can pay my bills and take care of my family. While that is a goal, it is a type of life I have never exactly been able to wrap my head around...but i digress. Now is the time that I can take risks. Now is the time that I get to find myself and do the things that make me most happy. Everyone should be doing that. Life is too short, whether you live to 30 or 90, it’s too short. I never want to look back on my life and say, well shit, I wish I did this, or that, and these things. What is the point of that? Life never ceases to amaze me...in the past two days one friend has brought a baby into this world, early but healthy and another friend found out her mother’s cancer is spreading. When things like this happen, it always makes me think. I never want to look back and wonder what-if or regret NOT doing something because I don’t know when I will be leaving this world.

…Take your shot…