Turning Point
- Themi Alexandra
- Sep 3, 2018
- 3 min read
This past month in Split was magic. There are many people, places, and things that made this month so. And I have one little word and a seismic shift in thinking to thank for a month that was filled with happiness, laughter, and fun.
Split was a turning point for me on this trip. The five month timestamp slapped me across the face with reality. This trip is flying by! So now is the time to start taking advantage of all the time that I have left. I’m not saying I haven’t been enjoying myself. I have. Albeit in a very measured manner. The reality is for the past five months my focus has been work first, Remote Year second. I’ve been hyper focused on proving to my employer that this works and there is no reason to call me home. In proving myself, I have said no to countless opportunities that have come my way because they are during my work day.
I finally had the realization that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am living in - here and now - and I need to be more flexible with work in order to take advantage of the opportunities that this experience offers me. Years from now, I’m not going to remember that I worked a strict 40 hour week the entire time I was on Remote Year, but I am going to remember the experiences that I had and the places I visited.
In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I can be rigid, disciplined to a fault, and all together too type A for my own good. I am great at saying no, to fun and to opportunity, which is why I read Shonda Rhimes Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand In The Sun, and Be Your Own Person during my vacation on Rhodes. To be clear I need no instruction on being my own person. But my life could do with a little more yes and lots more dancing. It was time to start living this trip to the fullest and stop saying no!
So in Split I said yes more and in doing so I found myself having a lot of fun with a lot of wonderful people. There were so many good days and great nights in Split, but this particular night set the tone for the rest of the month.
Our first week in Split, we were put into random groups and challenged to perform three acts of kindness upon strangers. So with the task at hand, I found myself in Old Town with my group: two of my Ohanas and two Remote Year alums I had just met. The challenge was more fun than I expected. From providing selfie-assistance to the countless tourists taking pictures along the harbor, to offering cold juice to people sitting at the many benches by the water, the response varied from surprise to genuine gratitude for refreshment.
Good deeds done, we decided to celebrate with cocktails. Conversation flowed freely over cocktails and drinks eventually turned into dancing. We danced until the club closed. From there, the party moved to my patio where where we watched the sun come up.
This night set the tone, not because it was an all nighter and not because it was my first sunrise of this trip. It set the tone because of the ease with which it flowed. One of those nights where each change of location is a logical progression and where everyone is having the same level of fun and no one wants the night to end. The good time kept going and I went right along with it all month long.
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