Clean Slate

It's one of the biggest misconceptions before you join the MC: thinking that since you're now working full time you'll have more time to do stuff.

I sure fell into that trap. Today Mess and I were talking and remembered that when we were in Calgary we thought that we'd have more of a social life in Toronto. I mean, it makes sense right? You're working full time, and only working full time, don't have homework or any other activities outside of classes to worry about, making a salary, living in the heart of downtown Toronto...sure, it makes sense! So needless to say, I had tons of plans for Toronto. The top things on the list were to brush up on my French (I figured this had to be easy since I have two team mates who speak fluent French), cook and live healthy, go to yoga (there's a studio on the first floor of our office), go to all the festivals, take up dance classes again - and enjoy the cute little shops all around town, become a world citizen and start reading again, the list went on and on!

I've lived in Toronto now for 3.5 months. Have I done any of that? Nope. In fact, to this day, I havn't really been to any of the festivals, except some random one on the harbour front, been to one yoga class, read one chapter of The Alchemist, and havn't even cracked open a French book. And the more time that passes, the less you feel like actually doing it - because you think, hmm, my goal was to read two books a month...its been three months and I've read none...so now I have to read 6 books...and then you end up not doing anything cause it seems like so much work.

Why you ask? AIESEC of course. You'd think that working full time and being paid for it would be enough time to get all your stuff done-but there is always more that needs to be done! June flew by because of transition, July flew by because you thought you had the whole summer ahead of you so you might as well just go into the office for one day on the weekend, August flew by because of NPM and IC, and now its mid September. I could work 24/7 and still have work to do. So that's when the excuses roll -well I didn't read this book cause I'm so busy at work, I didn'tgo to yoga cause I'm so busy at work, blah blah blah.

So recently I've come to the realization that life is always busy. You have to suck it up, and make time for all the personal goals and things you want to do. With that realization, this weekend I wiped my slate clean, and took the first step. I got a library card! Finally the picture at the top is starting to mean something! It's my first Toronto Public Library Card - and it was free! With it, I borrowed my first books - a cookbook, a book about Toronto, and a self-teaching French book. I've even opened them up and started to read them. WOOT for first baby steps! I'm still working as much as I did last week, but now at least I'm making time for other stuffs as well. It's a slow progression to a "normal" life, but progression none the less!