What I Have Learned So Far

What I have Learned So Far:

• Let's get this over with - I can still only say "Thank You" and a handful of random words (rice, trash, crazy bastard)
• That in some ways living across the world is like living on another planet, while in other ways - the world is exactly the same
• There is no better way to test a relationship than to live in a 2 by 2 box together

I think at the end of the day, what I am beginning to learn is something extremely simple.  It's the importance of finding a job and a balance in life that allows you to work to live, not to live to work.  I have had the job that drove me to work 50-60 hours a week and to have my cell phone on me and be checking emails even on my off time, and the truth is - I loved it.  But on the flip side, I don't think I had found out that the true meaning to life isn't in the work, but in the people that surround you and you fill your life with.

I will be the first to tell you that work is extremely filling, and that having a job that challenges you and drives you is both motivating and empowering.  I don't knock that side, but now that I have tasted the other side - the side where you leave work at work when you leave, the side where you love what you do but you don't stay up at night stressing about it ...I like this side.  I have been able to find other passions in life (writing, photography) and there is more time for people.  And at the end of the day, people are what matter.