Perspective on Problems

A friend recently opened my eyes to the concept of FWPs (First World Problems).  Some of these include a store not having your brand of ketchup, a waitress having to be asked for the bill for it actually to be given over, having to put on your own sheets at a hostel, throwing away your toilet paper instead of flushing it because the sewage system can´t handle anything besides what has exitted your body.  And sometimes, if too much has exitted, it can´t even handle that.  Living in a first world country, it´s easy to forget a much wider perspective of what we have and what we consider "a problem" like a smoking habit, panic attacks and Starbucks closing for a holiday. 

These problems are very real in a first world country, many times being caused by the very dominant work culture of not only identifying with our profession but basing a lot of our self worth on our performance in that profession.  We stress over unimportant things like paperwork and what our boss thinks of us and forget that doing our best and having good intentions should be amongst the highest on our priority list. 

Teaching appears to have such clear priorities, but when you´re in the school environment, for survival your priorities change.  Paperwork, grades, pareent conferences, deadline, deadline, deadline.  How does my principal feel about my performance?  Will my students´parents work with me or against me?  Will I be able to have a work-free weekend or will I, yet again, need to bring work home?  I would find the most enjoyable thing about my weekend is that I can sit outside while grading papers and planning for the next week.  Phew.  Atleast I´ll get a little Vitamin D.  I was worried!  No matter how it´s masked, it´s still work.  I don´t care if another teacher-friend is doing work with me.  It´s still work.  No boundaries and definitely no prioritizing my mental and physical health. 

I am finally able to see the absurdity of my priorities while teaching.  Taking care of everyone and everything over my own health.  Because of this newfound physical and mental health, I have decided to continue along this beautiful path and solely work at my not-so-difficult job at the hostel.  I will not be teaching Engliush in the magical city of Mendoza.  This was quite a big decision: choosing to work a job with very little challenge and very little income.  Up until now, I have always held jobs that were related to my passions.  While sitting at a reception desk isn´t quite a passion of mine, meeting new people and hearing their stories and being changed by their perspectives and cultures certainly is.  Since college, I have preached living by your beliefs.  I have figured out many beliefs to live by but I forgot to include the part about taking care of myself before taking care of others.  I envision the flight attendant miming securing your own mask before assisting another.  So, I am riding the Selfish Train for a while, allowing myself to simply be happy, healthy and to LIVE those beliefs I forgot for so long.

On a lighter note, there is a 3 day wine festival directly in front of my hostel.  God Bless Wine Country.