New set of eyes; same pair of shoes

I have gained a new pair of eyes by living in this country. I've learned how to view the world from a different viewpoint, and Im seeing things in a different way; more different then I ever have before. However, because I've recieved a new vision doesnt mean that I have to change the shoes Im walking in as well. I will still, and always will be, me. Because I've gained a new perspective on this crazy rollar coster we're on doesnt mean that Ive changed who I am as a person. I am still Megan Elizabeth Bender, and will be until my name is forgotten. I just wanted everyone to be aware of this fact. I have changed and I know I have but its for the better, to better me, and to better the world.

Another point I want to make is about my miserable and amazing weekend. Friday I slept all day, and felt bad for myself, so I watched the OC and (despite the fact its fictional) I felt much better about my issues. But when It rolled around to bed time I realized how useless it is to feel sorrow for myself.... really, how selfish can I get. So Saturday I enjoyed a nice day to the art museum Louisiana with my host sister and host mommy. I was SOOOOO INSPIRED by an art exhibit by a danish photographer named Jacob Holdt. He had traveled around the United States after being a drop out and not knowing what he was searching for had ended up in the states, hitch hiking and meeting people along the way. His philosophy on life was what hit me the most. The fact that he opened up his heart and his ears to people who needed it, he allowed himself to feel others pain in order to realive them of it. He meet some amazingly hurt people, people with more pain then I can even interpret. He said that on his journey he never once met an evil person (he met many KKK leaders and murders), they weren't evil just troubled. And throughout the exhibit each photograph had a story, and thats what I found so amazing, one second you would be laughing at the story and the next picture you were balling your eyes out. It was a beautiful exhibit. Jacob Holdt is now officially on my Denmark List as someone I would want to meet... even before the Queen hahah!

That was the amazing part of this weekend. The miserable came on Sunday. As I was getting home from a friends house and mass I arrived at the Holte train station to see that my bike... was GONE! I had paced madly around the train station trying to find it, but I ended up calling my host mom balling my eyes out. Someone had cut the chain on my bike and stole everything right from the bike rack. I never ever in my life thought it would be an issue, but it was enough to ruin my whole eveing. I feel terrible, but theres nothing anyone did wrong. Just people in this world who think that its okay to steal things... especially when it benefits them and they dont think about the one their taking from. It was tragic.

And once I got home I made my host family Tater Tot Hotdish, so that they could taste a bit of Minnesota. I was teary eyed, (not only from the onions) but being with my host family and just enjoying what I did have left and looking forward instead of back helped make the evening much nicer. They LOVED it, and I was so proud to say I even cooked something haha. So it was a cozy evening. And following we had an apple dessert my host mom made and some Hershey's Kisses to add an american twist to it ;) It was good fun.

Sooo... moral of this post is that in life we are al handed lemons, so we have to do the best we can with what we're handed. Its never fun and its never easy to deal with the difficult things in life, but the point is that IT WILL GET BETTER. If we dwell on past things or past motives we cant see the happiness in the moment we're in. Things could've been worse in my situation, but they weren't. It doesnt change that the bike was stolen but all I can do is look ahead. And in the case of the infleuntial things in life. I would love to take Jacob Holdt's philosophy on life as my own. We're all put on this earth, so lets all live together in it. Another's pain and suffering is my own pain and suffering, as well as other's joys. I find that then I will have a meaning to this life.

This weekend held too much emotion for me, but its okay, Im alive, and what didnt kill me made me stronger. I will always stay hopeful and look forward, not back.

I would like to think of myself like Holdt. Im a hitch hiker, in a foreign land, not knowing what Im searching for, but as long as Im open to the emotion and the adrenaline and the beauty, I will find what Im looking for. With my new set of eyes, and my same old trusty pair of shoes, Im off on the road, to figure out what Im searching for :)