Blinking in the sunlight at 6:30 a.m. this morning, I had a revelation. Other than being an all-too-obvious sign of my indoctrination as a former English major, it really did seem as if I had crossed a threshold.All too literally, I had emerged from the innermost cave.
The Bochnia salt mines are compacted by the shifting of continents by one centimeter a month. They have been doing this since their creation in the 13th century. Some people could have sworn it was difficult to breathe down there...and yet a cold wind constantly blew down the corridors. Where does the wind come from at 200 meters under the earth?
My sinus cavities throbbed because of the pressure change, but I could have sworn the whole time that if I opened some sort of locked mine shaft door, I would have found out we had been on ground level the whole time. Or I would have found myself having to choose between two vials, sitting at a tea party with the March Hare.
I'm not sure how, but I have begun to accept my life here. In other words, I'm not going to try so hard to find soy milk, nor am I going to expect bureaucracy to be easy in a former communist country. I am trying to break my bad habit of constant comparisons between here and home - a tall order because unlike during my previous travels, this time feels like it's for real.
That feeling has nothing to do with Poland, or even the fact that I will be here for a year. It's because whether I like it or not, my running off to Europe doesn't change the fact that I'm technically an adult now, whatever that means.
So then, if I'm not the same, the next question is "Who in the world am I?"
Ah, that's the great puzzle!
1 comment:
I think I see where you're coming from. I've recently made that plunge into the adult life too >.<
People have a tendency to look at travel as a continuation of the college/student life, but unfortunately, that's not at all true. You're going to grow up wherever you are at the time. Don't be depressed about it though! Just because you don't care as much about soy milk or beuracracy doesn't mean you've taken steps backwards in life, it just means that you've matured enough to focus on more important things!
Every phase of life we go through involves changing a number of things we care about, and often times, it just kinda happens right under our nose without us noticing. It doesn't change who you are, just your outlook on the world and life and what things tend to be important to you.
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