I Can Go Home Now

Colombia is lovely. Let's start there. I'm in Cartegena, which is a coastal city that centers a lot of itself around tourism, so of course everything is lovely. I can walk 30 steps from my hotel and be at the beach. That's a victory, even if I am here for work and thus don't have time for much playing. Still. Lovely.

Buuuuut ... let me just describe a moment to you.

We're coming up on winter, which means that darkness falls right around dinner time. It may be 90 degrees and humid, but winter is the season of darkness. Thus, after having a quick dinner with co-workers, we began walking back to the hotel even as the sun was setting behind us. One person asked to stop at a store to buy souvenirs for his kids, which was a solid idea. I should consider finding souvenirs for my girls. Maybe I'll get around to that before I return.

MAYBE.

Anyway, I didn't need to go into the store, so I stood outside enjoying the weather. Normal people are complaining it's too hot but I think it's perfect and, really, I could hug 90 degrees. So I was standing there, thinking that this part of Colombia is lovely, when it happened.

A cockroach ran across my foot. And not just any cockroach, but a cockroach big enough to wear a dog leash. The bones in my foot were crushed under the weight of the giant cockroach.

Sooooo ... if you need me, you'll have to wait. I'm busy sawing my foot off because I simply can't take it home with me.

Life is Weird

If you had asked me what I was going to do with my life when I was 18, I had a pretty clear vision for my future. I was a freshman at Kent State majoring in Spanish Translation while debating what to do with a business degree. The options were to do a dual major or to do a business minor (I eventually settled on the minor). The Spanish Translation thing was set in stone because, at that point, I was fluent in the language after having just returned from a semester in Spain as an exchange student. Basically, I tested out of 2 years of college-level Spanish, so I had a fast track to saving a whole bunch of money while earning a degree.

But I knew I didn't actually want to be a Spanish translator. There was never a point where I was like, "I'm going to use all this Spanish in my career!" It was more that I wanted to get a degree quickly and go do business-y things with maaaaaaaybe a bit of a Spanish flare. International business stuff, if you will. In fact, I twice wrote in-depth research papers about marketing to Latin Americans and the ways that American businesses needed to adapt if they wanted to gain market share south of the border.

Basically, I purposely sought a degree I had no plans to use. If I'm being completely honest, I don't particularly like speaking Spanish. It requires thinking and thinking requires slowing down and I'd rather Lorelei Gilmore my way through conversations.

Hi, I'm in Cartegena, Colombia this week. That not speaking Spanish thing is working out REAL well for me. ::headdesk::

But here's the thing that I realized while presenting a bunch of product stuff to a bunch of Latin Americans - ZOMG I'M DOING WHAT I SAID I WAS GOING TO DO.

So that's weird. Still.

I took several through life then sort of did a career change three years ago. That sort of career change evolved into something else and here I am, right back where I started. Which is interesting only because it's so common to tell 18 year olds that they have to be focused on what they want to do and work towards that.

Hey kids, the long way works too. And you still don't need to concern yourself excessively with picking a college major because with a few exceptions, it really doesn't matter. I'll prove it next week when I go back to not speaking Spanish.

Some hotel views are better than others. Hello, Cartagena!

A post shared by Burgh Baby (@burghbaby) on Jun 10, 2018 at 1:27pm PDT

I Like This Kid. A Lot.