money money money

Recently I had an epic moment of brilliance. Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT epic, and maybe it wasn't as brilliant as I first thought, but it was still one of those moments that hit me and almost knocked the wind out of me (which has not properly happened since I was knocked out with a soccer ball in 3rd grade. But I digress). This is what happened:

I was hiking up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh Scotland, heading deeper and deeper into the typical Scotland fog. Ahead of me was fog, all around me was fog, and below me was a deep green, very muddy, very long grass. Gen was behind me. All of a sudden it hit me: I am hiking up a hill in Scotland that on a clear day overlooks all of Edinburgh. I have paid for this trip myself. I am walking into the fog, nothing else matters. I may never again be doing this in this exact mindset that I am in today. Sounds pretty typical, what is the moment of brilliance, you ask? Well, the fact that I stopped and appreciated it. Now I sound all high and mighty- let me rephrase.

Most of my time over here has had the ethereal quality of a Virginia Woolf novel- moving slowly without a real purpose or direction, experiences happen and they don't happen. It still hasn't really hit me that I am here, each new experience I have takes a while to process and even then, probably because I am not a computer, it doesn't process fully. The moment in Scotland processed and was the first one to do so. Sounds nutty I know, but there was something about being there that was really grounding. It could have been the fresh air, who knows. The most important thing I took out of that moment- sure, my bank account is down a thousand dollars (effing exchange rate), but my experiences are up up up. Money comes and goes, I will make it back in time, but experiences are forever. The key is to know when to spend the money to take advantage of them. Hey, I may be broke and spend this winter and next semester on a strict strict strict budget but in the long run I will be happier that I spent the money to gain life experiences than to know that I saved money and missed out.

and that, my friends, is my speech on why I am not worried that I blew my life savings (twenty years worth) on 4 epic, epic months.

Soundtrack- Trevor Hall

Enjoy the exchange rate.