slovakia

Some things I should have focused on in Slovakia:

• a masters degree

• Becoming financially literate

• More rich roll podcasts

• A little more lifting and a little less running (think, April timeframe)

Some things I'm happy about in Slovakia

• a lot of running occurred late Jan-late April

• a reasonable amount of running from June through August

• Seeing the Slovakian countryside from a bike

• Feb-march I read 7 books

• Then I got sucked into the world of YouTube running and bike packing documentaries- highly recommend

• It's July 3rd and I just realized the mwr section of the gym tent is actually nice to use (see: a table)

• I've never listened to so few podcasts than this year, but it's mostly because I feel panicked for the escape of music

• I know this will end

I am thankful I can look to my next two weeks and be excited (Poland!). I can look to my next five weeks and be excited (Germany!) and I can think about my next two-three months and feel prepared (ga!)

Life doesn't pause. How are we enjoying the moments that feel as if they don't matter? How do we accept that a current task may not be for a present self. It's probably for a past you, maybe a future you, but it's there for your taking either way and that's our privilege to find within these moments. How do you define success? How do you define happiness? I remember reading these questions the last semester of college and being a little bewildered on the best way to approach this balance. Surely they can't be intertwined? If I've realized anything in the last few years, it has to include the layered and sliding scale between perceived joy and accomplishments. They can exist as stand alones, sure, but they're never as powerful. I have failed and been miserable and I have succeeded and felt a lightness nearly impossible to describe. I also failed and I was ok. I succeeded and I was still so low. It's special when we align our internal and external wins, it looks right, it's easily explained and understood, and we're awarded some breathing room, but that's not the growth point. We don't look back and praise every perfect choice, it's the missteps and stumbles and wrong choices and left turns that we remember and shape us, and we have the choice to love the moments before, during, and after these successes and through the failures. Does it get better? Probably not, but the ability to appreciate daily joys becomes a more obvious piece to finding a balance.