I'm dedicating this article to my friend, Lily in Netherlands who takes risk to pursue her dream and experiences life fully.
Lily dropped us a note from Netherlands this weekend. For some reasons I was truly touched by her e-mail and can really see how much my old friend has grown in the past few months.
Lily was my roommate from Santa Barbara. Earlier this year, she moved across Atlantic Ocean to be with her love in Netherlands for few years. As someone who has lived her whole life following rules carefully, I analyzed and tried to talk her out of it. "You has a good job in San Francisco that you love, you can't just give up your career." "It's only two years and he will be stationed back to U.S soon. True love can survive these two years, and you can't just quit your life here and move to a foreign country". "Maybe you should try to find a job in Netherlands first and then move. You can't even speak Dutch". I can still remember sitting in my living room this Spring and both Chia and I were trying to rationalize with her. After weeks of consideration, Lily still decided to move. Being her friends we might think it's a risky decision & crazy idea but we support her and wish her well.
Now seeing her adapting to her new life well, making new friends and adjusting to "Potential" military wives life style- I'm so happy for her and praise her courage. I am proud of her to take risk and explore opportunities in life. From her e-mail, I can tell she works hard to get acquainted with the new country. It's amazing to see my bar/club hopping city friend has grown to adapt to simple life so quickly and to appreciate things/people around her. I am glad that she didn't listen to her risk adverse friend and went ahead to pursue her dream. Lily, I wish you well and am looking forward to see you this winter.
Most of us live by rules our whole lives. We go by society standards, always busy and on the go. We work hard for our 9 to 5 jobs and are risk adverse. We rarely take on tasks that we aren't sure about. We put on hold for that one trip we always want to take, the people we want to be with, and that one thing we want to learn. By dong so, I wonder if we miss out the opportunity to truly experience life.
真佩服你朋友的勇氣，要是我一定不會去！想想以前那些宣教士到外國去傳教，他們更辛苦呢！有夢 想有使命就能讓人變得熱情勇往直前！
Europeans think differently than Americans. They are all about enjoy life, work less, blah blah.. Yeah, how can you enjoy life without working hard? That's why their economy is so bad and there's a high percentage unemployment rate among young people. People who spend big money in Europe are mostly tourists from Asia or US. If you are most Europeans, they would rather be in the 'States' as they calle it. I guess grass is always greener at the other side of the fence. Btw, when are we going to Europe as US tourist?
kk - I am ready anytime when you are.
I am truely touch by your friend Lily and this article. I am one of the tipicle people who go by society standerd, following the rules ...and I have missed some thing .....