The problem of being a student and, beyond that, also liking my work work is that I never actually go on an actual vacation. When my uni schedule frees up, I take advantage of it to work. When I have fewer texts to translate and copyedit, I spend most of my time reading for uni. Even by the seaside last year I spent an hour or two working daily, instead of spending that time for an additional book.
*I make a distinction between work (meaning studying and working for uni) and work work, which is translating and copyediting.
I like all this, don’t get me wrong, but this time, at the beginning of March, I had to admit to myself that I was exhausted. After half a year, during which I furiously wrote my Master’s thesis, additionally educated myself in the field of linguistics, had surgery, dealt with the bureaucracy of registering for a new programme, started the new programme full force while still editing the thesis, all the while worked about a dozen hours a week … Well, sooner or later my body would’ve forced me to take at least some rest.
Cue the point of this travelogue.
A preview of one type of the wonderful Jordanian landscape.
After submitting the thesis in early March, my brother asked me whether I am now finally planning on taking some time off. My first instinct was to fight it tooth and nail. You know, excuses. “No, no I can’t, no way I can stop working for a week right now.” “But I have so much work for uni.” “I already live in a different country, I don’t need to change my environment that often.” And so on and so forth. But the idea got its claws in me and wouldn’t let go, like a scared cat that’s using its last strength to hang on to the trunk of a tree under which an angry dog is barking.*
*Whereby the cat was Wanderlust (or a strong desire to travel) and the dog was work and all kinds of excuses that have been preventing me, for years, from truly going on an adventure.
I had sand, camels, sun … in my future. What more could one want.
The thing was that my brother was working in Jordan just then and I knew that at some point, he had the plan to spend a week travelling around. I also knew, with the certainty of a younger sister, that we might not have traveled alone before, but he probably wouldn’t mind much if I joined him for a bit of company. I was right.
After that it all went fast. On Thursday I came up with the idea. On Friday my brother agreed. On Saturday I told my parents who nearly passed out when they heard I wish to go to the Middle East. On Monday morning the plane ticket was in my inbox. Sometimes it can be this simple. Of course I had quite some preparations ahead of me, but I knew it would all fit together. With persistence, everything is possible.
1 Response
[…] START HERE […]