Piña Colada
A year ago I thought that my life finally made some sense. I had certain ideas about my future, my plans, my expectations. Then, one day, everything changed. Suddenly. Without any warnings. Out of the blue. People would think that with the kind of life I live I like changes. I don’t. I like challenges, spontaneous decisions and risks. But no one likes changes. That’s the reason why I travel slowly; so I would have enough time to explore, enjoy and appreciate the moment and the place. I don’t like any rush and I hate when people say that they don’t have time. I always say that it’s all about priorities. By a very simple act of canceling on someone you send much more important information. After all, no message is also a message.
A very close friend of mine once told me a story of his father and his father’s friend. They would meet up once per year, at the same time, at the same place. Each year, no one would be late or not show up because they made a deal. So brave. So simple. There’s no better feeling than when your expectations correspond with reality.
Past months I have been thinking of how people’s expectations actually shape their reality. Iceland has not been my first choice. Iceland is the combination of fate, good luck, bad luck and coincidence. So is life. Every exit is an entrance somewhere else. But what if there’s no difference between an end and a beginning? Just like Piña Colada song tells; a man who is tired of his wife replies to a personal ad, aiming to meet a woman of his dreams he finds out that this woman is his own wife… Sometimes there’s a very tiny line between our expectations and reality. Sometimes it’s up to us to define whether there’s even a line or it’s just us who separate these two illusions.
I remember, when I was younger one friend showed me how to stop my head pain. He pressed one point in my palm which caused much worse pain than the one in my head, so my brain would focus on that new pain in my palm instead. It worked. Human’s brain is a mysterious thing, but still has certain limits; it can’t process two different pains at the same time, or at least not at the same level. I’ve remembered this method very carefully and have been using it since. However, today, I realized I’m transforming it into much more than just a simple physical pain killer strategy. The more I get hurt, the more I put myself into dangerous situations, so another part of me would get “hurt” instead. It is a simple technique to limit the pain that bothers you. You just have to be brave enough and put yourself out of your comfort zone, be open to the unknown and free to accept any challenge. For a second you might feel fear, but as soon as you overcome it, that crazy feeling of release arrives. Your expectation will not always meet reality, but I promise, something great will come out of it.
