Happiness

Written by Emily

Dear family, friends, and others,

I want to talk about happiness today. This is my first blog post so I might ramble, forgive me, but I am just so full of happiness that I can barely contain it. This is actually an interesting turn of events because for the past few weeks Eric and I were both feeling a little bit down. He wrote about it in his previous post. Things were feeling hard at school, we had electricity issues, and it was getting colder. For me, the past few days have really turned everything around, and that’s what I want to share with everyone.

There is something The Disillusionment Phase that says most first year teachers burn out or have a crisis around October or November. I see how it can easily happen to any teacher, no matter how “good” they are. I think this type of person focuses so much on what is right in front of them that they can’t see the bigger picture. My bigger picture happened on Friday night at my school’s Halloween party.
I've been working in this (relatively) new advisor position, and it's been a challenge -- hopefully I'll get to write more about that next time. But in one of my advising sessions, the student and I got to talking about Halloween. The next natural step seemed like hosting a party, in this case at my school's dormitory. 

SO: first off, we had a whole week’s worth of English events that were planned by one of the 12^th grade classes. These kids are seriously amazing. They made up games, wrote trivia questions, printed certificates for the winners, and decorated the auditorium, plus so many other things I didn’t even see. All I had to do was show up for the events and say what they told me to say. I’ve never seen this level of dedication in the American school system and I was so impressed. And it wasn’t only one class getting into it! At every event we had a large group of students show up, and at the Halloween party every student wore a costume or painted their face really scary. On Friday we played games at the party and we had too many volunteers each time. I feel like this week sold me on how important it is to work as a group. An individual student nor I by myself could never have accomplished all that we did as a group. I’ll remember this success for a long time, and it will help me the next time I get down about something.

I was really happy at the party and that leaked over into everything else. Along with my fellow PCVs and KOICA volunteers, we have 3 really good projects planned that will come to fruition within the next few months that (hopefully) will make a big impact on the community. I was able to find some nice secondhand boots for a good price. At the market our favorite fruit lady gave us a free apple each. Our German friend invited us over to his apartment last night and we played games. My cilantro is doing well and my water plant has a beautiful pink flower on it. The snow covering the mountains near us is absolutely gorgeous. I ate lunch and spoke Mongolian with the school secretary and we pretty much understood each other. My school has a week break from classes in order to plan for next quarter, so I don’t have to teach at all this week. Yoga class yesterday was great. I just learned that boxing is pretty popular here so I will try to find a class I can attend. There are super cute cats that live under and around our building that we are trying to make friends with. I have the time to learn about the stuff I didn’t have time to learn in college and grad school. I’ve been looking at rental houses in SE Asia for next summer and there are some mind-blowingly amazing options. We can and do talk to our families and friends whenever we want.

There are too many things to be happy about! Sure, there are still plenty of small things we could worry about, but what is the point in that? What I want to say to everyone is: why would you ever choose to focus on the bad when the world is so incredibly full of good things?

I am living my dream, even with the bad things. Eric is amazing enough to live it with me. How many people can say they are truly living their dream right now? I think not so many. And it is hard work and sometimes frustrating or lonely, but no one ever said it would be easy to live a dream. I think it should be hard so you will appreciate it that much more. I know I am an overly optimistic person, but it is such an amazing feeling to be nearly overwhelmed with happiness on a daily basis that I want to share it with everyone so maybe I can help someone else feel it too.

Here’s to another wonderful day in beautiful Mongolia!