"With all it's sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world..."

Have you ever felt slightly unhinged?

Yesterday was a little like that for me. A lot of contributing factors, which in and of themselves, are not necessarily all that stressful (or shouldn't be), but added up had me considering what a nervous breakdown would feel like. Although I've never experienced one myself, I've seen one or two first hand, and I know they're not pretty. The scariest thing is when you begin to doubt yourself. I just came across Nacho's recent posting of Desiderata and found that extremely comforting and relevant. We used to have that poem in our front hall while I was growing up.

On the bright side, it was probably a good thing for me to go through, considering I'm leaving the country in 19 days and no doubt will be experiencing some stress due to culture shock. I got to utilize some techniques for dealing with stress, like talking it through with good friends/family. It's nice to know that I will have a great support network there, here, and...well all over the place :)

My grandmother ("Oma") was put into the hospital on Saturday (one of the contributing factors). Her health has not been good for a while, but she has contracted pneumonia and we were all really worried there for a bit. I have a huge family; my Oma had 10 kids...so when the nurse told my Aunt that they might want to start calling the family and getting us down there that night, they said "are you sure? is it that serious?" (the hospital she is at is not all that big) ... but they ended up calling and of course most of us came. Although it was very difficult to see her in such a condition, it was very comforting to have the family there and to know that we come together in times of crisis like that. Fortunately she is doing much better now and should be released from the hospital within the week. I feel very blessed to have them; I will definitely miss my fam while I'm away!

Some other good news is that another team mate of mine has been selected: Deeptesh Gill from India will be the VP External Relations on our team! I am really excited about the team (my new family!) that I will have the privilege of working with in Serbia and Montenegro :D

Going to Serbia and Montenegro! :)

Wow...where do I begin...?

I found out just over a week ago that I was selected to be MC VP Learning for AIESEC in Serbia and Montenegro! I am incredibly excited about this amazing opportunity and a week later, am still trying to process it!

I was in Belgrade almost 2 years ago for an AIESEC conference so I have some idea of what I have gotten myself into. Serbia & Montenegro are beautiful and I am getting more and more excited every day about returning there and seeing all of my friends, old and new! I am also extremely excited about being on an MC and the opportunities for making an impact that go along with that.

I suppose I will leave it at that for now...but look forward to more blogs as I progress through this incredible experience! I look forward to posting lots of my thoughts, experiences and photos for my friends and family while I am away :)