Happy Thanksgiving!

If my sources are correct, today is Thanksgiving in the States. It happens to be a holiday in Japan, too (Labor Day). I was just sitting around the house because it's all rainy and cold out, then decided to get into the Thanksgiving spirit by making more food than I could possible eat and pigging out as much as I could. I pulled some carrots from the garden and added sliced eggs and cucumber to an enormous bowl of noodles. But that didn't seem like enough to make my stomach hurt so a few small cakes and a bread roll seemed in order. And to warm myself up a bit, a green tea latte (something new I had for the first time yesterday and instantly became my new favorite drink). It might not be a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but after finishing it all I went into the food coma that no real Thanksgiving would be without.


And I thought about the things I'm thankful for. Which turns out to be everything. I love my life. I love every day. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I'd chosen a different path or done something different, and I'm glad that this is how things turned out. All the things I've done have led me here. And it's such a great place to be.

Sometimes people ask if I regret giving up on a career in medicine. Not at all. If I'd continued studying, I wouldn't have taken the job in retail where I met one of my best friends, and wouldn't have lived with Aska nor met Ken - two people who played a vital role in fostering my curiosity about Japan. I wouldn't have applied for a job here and wouldn't be living this adventurous life making friends with people from all over the world. If I'd gone to medical school, I wouldn't have spontaneously thrown some clothes in the car one day and taken off for three months to drive around the States nor would have had enough free time to travel the world and leisurely explore countries that I've fallen in love with (you absolutely must visit Thailand and Cambodia).

I used to daydream about what it would have been like to have studied abroad for a year back in university. But that would have most likely been during my junior year, and I wouldn't want to trade all the memories from that one year: all the people I'd met and the experiences I had. That was the year I met so many of the people that I truly value and often think about (Speck included). I learned how to develop film and spent all that time in the dark room with Alicia, became friends with StevieD and Sona while volunteering at the orphanage in Tijuana, studied with the man who wrote Il Postino and got to examine records of plant species that Charles Darwin himself collected and catalogued. So I'm glad I didn't study abroad. The memories I made are too important to give back.

A few years ago I applied for a job and was devastated when I didn't get it. But because I didn't, I continued working at the job I hated and made connections with people that allowed me to have the life I live now. Thank goodness I didn't get that job. I was crushed at the time, but am so glad for it now.

Thinking about it now, if I could turn back time and relive my life while keeping all the memories I've made, I'd probably do everything exactly the same just so I can enjoy it all over again. Well, perhaps a few things would be different. Like, all the time I've spent playing video games could be used to play different video games. And if I could memorize a few lottery numbers before time got turned back that might come in handy. And I wouldn't leave the pots of dirt outside so they could harbor nests of centipedes.

Well, that's enough for now. Time to lie down and continue digesting. Yay Thanksgiving.