Life Changes

I teach English in Dresden, Germany.  If you've ever read any of my other blog posts you know that I love it.  It's a real challenge though, and sometimes I wonder if what I'm doing is what I'm meant to do.  I have a website, Google+ page, two blogs and I teach between 10 and 16 hours a week. Yes, I stay busy.   Lately, I've started wondering if it's what I should be doing.  What am I passionate about?  What difference can I make in the world?  How can I improve my student's lives?  Am I in the right place? etc.....I'm sure you've heard it all before from both friends and strangers. 
I do think that everyone is meant to be happy.  No, I don't mean winning the lottery, momentarily gleeful kind of happy, but really happy.  Not everyone is, and it's true, not everyone can be happy all the time, you know 24/7, but in general everyone should be able to find something and someone they love an make a life for themselves.  So, with that being said, the next question is why people don't make changes in their lives in order to bring about happiness?  Want to know the answer.....you probably already guessed that it's FEAR.  Yes, I said it.  Fear is the reason people can't make changes in their lives that would enable them to be happy.  Anxiety doesn't help either. 
I watched a video on YouTube that lead to this pondering.  The woman giving the speech isn't the world's most eloquent speaker, but she makes some important points and gives some great tips about rebooting your life.  I'm not ready for a reboot, but I think that even if you're not ready for such a drastic step listening to what she has to say can help you find out what it is in life that you really should be doing, instead of working in a job that you hate, or are just comfortable with.  The world needs change, so if you can make a change in your life, do something that will make an impact on the world and create change in other people's lives, why not do it?
I'm posting the link to the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWxMDdLey0E Go watch the video and see if it doesn't inspire you to make a change.

Good deeds

I've been living in a hectic state lately, running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  So today, I had a flip-chart with me where Dr. Seuss teaches students basic colors, shapes, letters and all of the other essentials that we learn in kindergarten.  I went to the post office to send off a package to Berlin and had the chart with me.  Needless to say when I got home after 4 I realized it was missing.  So I mentally went over my day and realized it had to be at the post office.  Are you thinking this is about to end badly?  Well, I was, too until I went back to the post office and the man behind the counter smiled at me as soon as I entered the door.  ( Please note: Germans don't generally just smile at random people.) He told me he'd be with me in a moment and a woman went into the office and appears with Dr. Seuss flip-chart in hand.  You can say what you'd like about the people who live in the former East Germany, but they are the most honest people I've ever met.  It makes me happy to live here with so many awesome people.