2 weeks ago, I flew back into Canada from the Dominican. It’s hard for me to express the amount of difficulty that I’ve encountered since I’ve been home.
My first day back at University, the first thing I noticed is how quiet fellow students are. In the Dominican, people were so friendly. No matter who you were, they smiled and said hello. When I walked down campus and waited for my class to start, majority of people had their head down. No one said hello or flashed a smile and most people were on their cell phones. However, there were a couple people that returned my smile or acknowledged my hello. This was the first difficulty that I encountered and it was hard to not let it bring me down.
Second, it was so hard for me to get back into my normal life. Seeing my family and friends when I got home was so exciting but once I got back to Windsor and had to attend classes again, it was hard for me to focus. All I wanted to do was hop on a plane and head back to the Dominican. I didn’t want to do school work, or engage in class discussion. When I stepped in class and saw all the MAC laptops, my heart tore in half. We have so much in Canada and few people realize how lucky we actually are. This brings me to my third point.
The third difficulty that I have encountered since i've been home is the amount of people who let the little things in life; bring them down. I understand that it is difficult to see past that hard times but I wish that people could understand that there are others in the world who are struggling just to live and here they are, in a beautiful, wealthy country, complaining about their broken Iphone like the world is going to fall apart without it. I wish I could tell people and have them believe me when I say that it will be okay. The amount of times that people have made me want to pull my hair out since I’ve been home due to drama, drives me insane. The other day, I heard someone talking about something annoying that their friend does and all I could think about was “If you don’t tell her how you feel, it isn’t going to get better”. So many people today play the victim role when they have a solution in their back pocket. Sympathy was never designed to be used to get attention from others.
The last difficulty that I have encountered relates heavily to school. Before this trip, I wanted to go to graduate school for clinical neuropsychology. I love learning about the brain, but most of all... the money is unreal. Before the trip, I was so stressed about school and future plans. I wanted to go to graduate school for 5+ years and get my Masters and Ph.D even though I hate doing research and knew that I would be miserable during those years. Once I came home, I had a wave of clarification wash over me and realised that I don’t need that. I don’t need a lot of money or continuous years of education. All I need is a job that makes me happy. I need a career that is just as emotionally satisfying as it is financially satisfying. Believe it or not, I have an appointment tomorrow with an academic advisor here at the university to change my schooling path towards teachers college. I plan to finish my 4 year undergraduate degree and to then apply for teachers college in 2017. I did not see this coming at all. Before the trip, I would have never considered teaching for a living. I honestly did not think that I would be good at it. However, now that I am home, all I want is to be able to see the smiles on children’s faces once they understand material that you have been trying to teach them. I could not be happier with where my life is at right now and I am looking forward to the future with more excitement than ever. I can’t wait until I can go back to the Dominican and see those children again but for right now; I am excited as I know that no matter where I end up in life, the goal will be happiness with financial stability, not wealth with little joy.
