If someone had told me, as I stumbled through high school a grumpy and irritable adolescent, that I would spend a majority of my adult life living and working in other countries, I would have shrugged the idea off. Of course it would have tantalized my senses a little bit but the thought would have been forgotten by 6th period choir. The truth is in high school, or even in college for that matter, you can't even begin to predict yourself what life highway you will get on. So I guess I'm not all that surprised at the international exposure I have had. The tricky thing is once on life's highway, how to navigate to your next destination. I like to recommend a seemingly archaic tactic. All you need to do is use your knuckles.
I can remember being younger and going on road trips with my father. I was his dutiful navigator and I treasured my task. I clutched the unnecessarily large atlas mindlessly, similar to how you would a TV remote. You don't need it. In fact you really enjoy the program you are watching. But it feels good to simply have it in your hand. Just in case you need to change the channel. When my father asked me questions about our voyage, I loved to consult the maps. How far is our next exit? Where is the next rest stop? About what time will we get there? I buried my head between the pages, analyzed our location and current speed, measured the distance we needed to travel, and compared it to the map scale. It was always a crude estimate; I used my knuckles to measure distances on the map. Yet somehow it always gave me an accurate response. My father would nod trustingly and continue to belt out his rendition of "If we are going, to San Francisco". I never minded that I didn't understand the time period he sang about. I would relax back into my seat, atlas still spread open on my lap, and gaze out the window at the midwestern scenery. (I've never been to San Francisco).
I held off as long as I could before I began using electronic navigators. I would take road trips throughout high school and college, with my atlas still on my lap. It seemed more authentic of a trip to use the crude tools of perspective and human judgement. I also felt slightly uncomfortable about a computer making my navigation decisions for me. It's not like I wasn't involved in the process; I still decided where to go. Still there is nothing like the dynamic process of standing back and taking a look at the bigger picture. Even if it's just to feel good about the progress you've made. Life can be the same. It can be overwhelmingly refreshing to take your map out every once in a while, evaluate the distance to your next destination, examine your current speed and trajectory, then use your knuckles to see when you are going to get there.
I've been doing that for quite some time. I think about what I want to do next, make plans to go there, and calculate how long it will take me to accomplish my goal. I guess that is what has brought me here to Cuenca, Ecuador. I never thought about teaching in South America until I was halfway through a teaching contract in Asia. Strange how things like that happen. Regardless, with the idea in mind, I set my internal navigation system and prepared to depart. The rest is history. Or at least it will be as long as I continue blogging about all my experiences in Latin America.
The plane that brought me to Cuenca! I arrived on such a gorgeous day.
The plane that brought me to Cuenca! I arrived on such a gorgeous day.
