New Leaf

I think it's about time I turned over a new leaf. Again.

How many times can a person turn themselves over? Surely you turn yourself over a few times and you're back to where you started...

Who knows. 

This year, my self improvement aims include:

1. reading more
2. blogging more
3. trying to be more understanding and patient with people
4. learn to rough it
5. be more outdoorsy
6. learn to live frugally
7. getting my life goals back on track 
8. have more self discipline
9. don't be so emotionally lead

The first two are pretty basic and straightforward. Done.
Trying to be more understanding and patient is hard when the other person is truly baffling in their thought process. 
Take for instance, a conversation that happened last night:

Guy: "Are you Taiwanese?"
Me: "No, I'm from England"
G: "How long have you lived in England?"

****FREEZE FRAME ON MY CONFUSED FACE*****
Thought bubble from my head reads - How long have I lived in England?? All my life?? I don't want to sound like a smart ass... Does he mean how long have I lived in Taiwan? 

M: "How long have I lived in England?"
G: "Yes"
M: "All my life"

****FREEZE FRAME ON HIS CONFUSED FACE****

This is a guy from Delaware, U.S.A. You would've thought that he would be at least aware of the possibility of an Asian born abroad.

That's when I cut and run from the conversation and avoided him until he left. I'm not sure all the patience in the world could humour that level of stupidity.

Learning to rough it and living more frugally go hand in hand for me. I have slept in a 12 person bunk bed in a room that slept 20 people. This meant I slept in the same bed as 6 other people on the top bunk of a bed that stretched from wall to wall and 6 people slept below us on the bottom bunk. Opposite was a similar bunk bed that slept 8.
But for $300NT (£6gbp/$9usd) a night, it's hard to argue and it was a comfortable nights sleep!

Being outdoorsy for me is a challenge since I am pretty petrified of nature. It's not just the crazy poisonous insects that want to drink your blood and snakes that bite you (or eat you whole so I've heard) it's the uneven footing, the unpaved terrain and the lack of an adequate safety barrier between you and the 3000ft drop that's either side of you on hikes. Don't even get me started on the sketchy ladders and rope system that's meant to act as an aide to scale these vertical sheer cliff faces as you put your life in it's stringy "hands" if you will, and swing over a massive gap in the path. I'm sure if I got the right shoes it would be much easier... (Ha.)

Getting my life goals back on track would not be a problem if I knew what my life goals were.
Beyond being rich enough to be happy, I have lost my way a bit.
Let's come back to this one later.


More self discipline!! Who doesn't need more self discipline? This year, for the fourth year, I have given up meat for lent. By golly it's not been easy. But it's definitely gotten easier as the years have gone by. Moreover, I give up one thing only to become fixed on something else - this year it's chocolate. Nutty chocolate. Ferrero Rocher, Chocolate Almonds, Peanut M&Ms, Snickers... You name it, I've eaten it in the last 35 days. Time to find a more worthwhile habit to kick.


This leads me to my final aim on the list. I will give up being so damn emotionally lead. I feel it, I do it. I devise reason and logic around the thing I feel to justify it. This process should occur the other way around. I believe that in giving up this emotionally lead lifestyle, I will have less drama. I don't know what it is, but drama seems to follow me. Maybe I'm a drama queen (quite likely) or maybe I make decisions without thinking about the consequences (extremely likely), either way, I would like to lead a drama free life. Nay, let's be realistic - a drama reduced life.


-D