That's right. We're now in Bulgaria.
A lot has happened since Nia's and my arrival in Europe -- much more than either of us expected. The very long story short could be summed up in an experience we encountered on an 8- hour train ride from Sophia, Bulgaria, to the country's famous beach city of Varna:
A bee zoomed past us into the window next to our seats. It kept flying into the window and crawling to the top, only to fly back down and start over again. After a few rounds of this, we figured the bee was trying desperately to get out.
"Why doesn't it just fly out of the train a different way?" we asked each other. "I mean, it flew in here so obviously it can get out."
There were hundreds of other windows on the train that the bee could have attempted to escape from, as well as dozens of doors that opened whenever someone had to use one of the many bathrooms on board. There were even openings in the toilets that would let the bee directly out into the vast nature it seemed to want to get to.
But the bee must not have known that, and after a couple of hours it became painful to watch it struggle only to get nowhere.
That's when I realized the bee and I have much in common. Like the bee, I am sometimes unaware of the fact that there are various opportunities open to me, numerous pathways I can take to get what I want. Instead, I tend to choose one limited path and keep expending energy on it, not fully using my abilities in the best ways possible. After all, bees have wings so they can fly around.
Perhaps, a part of me knew this about myself before encountering the bee in Bulgaria. One of the reasons we are in Bulgaria in the first place is because I've decided to fully embrace my dream of writing and traveling, and pursuing this dream with the best plan(s) possible.
While teaching English abroad is a fine way to travel, my reasons for wanting to do so have been more about relative economic security and not really about my deepest talents and passions. Yes, I would make an incredible teacher because I would put my mind to it, though I wouldn't be exceptional because my heart would be elsewhere -- with my writing.
In short, I would rather be the bee that actually navigates the various pathways toward exactly what I want (a career in writing while traveling), instead of struggling aimlessly at what seems like a direct route but is really just an enticing window that doesn't open into my manifesting desires.
I guess I should also change the name of this blog!
