"Go slow! You're not in New York, anymore!"

"Go slow." Something that was called to me often during my week long stay on the beach paradise in Caye Caulker, Belize. It was the perfect beginning to my winter break Central America trip, because I'm not the kind of person who's good at going slow. I like walking fast, and I'm always in a hurry to get somewhere, never really taking in my surroundings and enjoying the moment. Learning to go allowed me to stay a few extra days in a town I liked.

And then I came back from winter break this semester, and back into the thick of things. Everything moves so fast. It feels like time has absolutely FLOWN since August when I first became a grad student, and am now just waiting to finish up classes and start my Peace Corps in just three months!

It's funny that here in Normal everyone else moves so fast that my friends here think I actually walk pretty slow, talk pretty slow, move pretty slow. But I've been taking it all the wrong way. As if these qualities I've been striving for the past couple years I've now become embarrassed of. While I used to practice talking slower and clearer, and moving slower and more calm, these are things I've once again come to take for granted in the United States.

Well it's not the way for me. In Swaziland, I'm sure things will be a lot slower, and so I wanna start here and now. Focus on stressing less about school, which after the exam this morning, and paper I've turned in this afternoon, I've officially hit the halfway mark. Just a little bit left to go, and it's really not that important in the scope of what's ahead. The next exciting chapter in my life, a new continent to conquer. I just need to concentrate and get it out of the way, and then back to "going slow" for me. =)