Had another hard week this week...have been ready to throw in the towel. But have done quite a bit of thinking, too, about happiness and what I need in life. This is a train of thought I have been riding for the last couple of years in fact, since moving back to Oregon from Massachusetts. I think I´ve figured out that there are four basic areas of my life that I need to be going well in order to be content. These areas are: home life, professional life, social life and environment.
Home life: Has not been very happy. My living style is completely incompatible with one of my roommates´ living styles and I´ve felt like I couldn´t talk to her about it, so things have been incredibly tense at home for the last couple of months. Luckily the shit hit the fan this weekend and a solution has been arranged, and I´m very hopeful that things will be much more comfortable around here now. Things are looking up on this front.
Professional life: I really like teaching, and I adore most of my students. I do have one class that has been giving me trouble, but I´m ready to tackle the challenge and find a good way to deal with the situation. If worse comes to worst, I can ask for the class to be taken over by another teacher starting in January. But aside from this one class, I´m happy with the teaching. Could do with less commuting, but now that I have some books and have started reading on the train (a miracle that I don´t get motion sickness!), the commute isn´t SO bad. Things in this area are better than okay.
Social life: Unsatisfying. I have one friend, who also happens to be one of my two roommates. I´ve tried to stay in touch and form friendships with my former roommates, who are Spanish, but it´s hard to make Spanish friends. They tend to already have their social lives sorted. I also only get to hang out with a larger group of people about once a month, and there really haven´t been other people I´ve connected really well with. Except that I went to the TtMadrid graduation party last night and connected with a fellow alum, Alan, who is from Scotland and used to work for the UN and who also likes Murakami. One more friend! There are also a couple of other people whom I haven´t had time to hang out with who might become good friends. Things in this area are looking up.
Environment: Let´s face it, Madrid is no Paris. In my opinion it´s a pretty ugly city, though there are certain streets that I really like. For some reason I love C/ Jose Ortega y Gasset near the Lista metro. And there´s an alley on the walk to the Cercanías from my house that´s very beautiful. Am drawing a blank on other pretty places in Madrid at the moment. This is one need that I don´t expect to be able to fulfill here, though I will see plenty of beautiful places while I´m traveling so maybe that will help make up for it.
I think that if I can get three out of four of these areas balanced out then I have a good chance of making it to July with my sanity intact.
No comments:
Post a Comment