A Year in Slovakia: Statočnosť, Láskavosť a Nezdar.
“During your gap year, how have you been brave? How have you been kind? How have you failed? How have you bounced back?”
There is a quote that I live by; one that I read whenever I feel lost or led astray. And I believe it applies to bravery, kindness, and bouncing back. It is as follows:
“Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference. Don’t allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It’s there for your convenience, not the callers. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. Don’t burn bridges. You’ll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Don’t major in minor things. Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Learn to say no politely and quickly. Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Don’t waste time grieving over past mistakes — learn from them and move on. Every person needs to have their moment in the sun, when they raise their arms in victory, knowing that on this day, at his hour, they were at their very best. Get your priorities straight. No one ever said on his death bed, ‘Gee, if I’d only spent more time at the office’. Give people a second chance, but not a third. Judge your success by the degree that you’re enjoying peace, health and love. Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly. Leave everything a little better than you found it. Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life and death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems. Never cut what can be untied. Never overestimate your power to change others. Never underestimate your power to change yourself. Remember that overnight success usually takes about fifteen years. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do. Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in harbor is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out. Spend less time worrying who’s right, more time deciding what’s right. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life. Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get. The importance of winning is not what we get from it, but what we become because of it. When facing a difficult task, act as though it’s impossible to fail.
- Jackson Brown Jr.
I was always told exchange was like a rollercoaster, filled with highs and lows, but didn’t realize just how true that was until I experienced it myself. I have faced a lot of failure and disappointed while here, but mainly in myself. There are moments where I will realize how much I have strayed from my goals and fallen into paths which I shouldn’t be on. The month of January was my hardest month since being on exchange. I lost some of my closest exchange friends as they had to return to their home countries and was struggling with my host family. Not wanting to cause any concern back home or with my Rotary, I just decided to try to push through it on my own. I felt really alone and it took me a couple weeks until I finally decided it was time to pull myself together. I read my quote and pretended to be brave, even though I was no where close to it. I threw myself into kindness. I decided even if I wasn’t feeling so good, at least I could make others feel better. So each day after school, I went from one volunteer activity to the next. One of these days, something incredible happened. I went to the hospital, as I had been doing for the last five months, but this time was different. Because this time, instead of there being Slovak children, there was a little American girl. She had been there for a week or more, and wouldn’t eat or sleep, only cry. Most people working in the hospital don’t speak English so no one had been able to get through to her, so as soon as I arrived, they sent me to her. I ended up being there for over two hours. I just talked and talked as I held her hand, knowing that sometimes that is the only comfort a person can offer until they are ready. I told her about my family and asked about hers and when she wouldn’t answer, I would answer for her, making up crazy stories that would get little giggles out of her. I had brought stickers with me too, most of them of Disney movie characters. As I was going through them, I got the first word out of her. I had been talking about Elsa from Frozen and just like most kids right now, she loved Frozen. With that little word about Frozen, I was able to get her to continue talking and then once she got talking, I got her to eat. The nurses were astounded. Turns out, all this little girl needed was a kind voice. I visited her everyday that week, until she was healthy enough to leave the hospital. This little girl reminded me of why I was here. I wasn’t here for myself but for this world. With that, my life began to turn around again. By the time February hit, change had come.
February was the best month of my exchange so far. After putting on the brave face and pushing through, true happiness and bravery began to emerge into my life once again. By the first week of February, I could already feel a shift coming; a new wave of my exchange was about the begin. I went to my first cottage, realized how incredible my new host family was, skied for a week with Rotary, attended my first ball, and took a school trip to Morocco. Now it is March and I see no end to this joy. Though I know there will still be lows, I know that I can make it through anything because of my braveness, kindness, and resilience.
