Take Risks

If you’d have told me I would become friends with all of these people, I never would have believed you:

I never would have guessed that these girls would be my absolute closest friends in Germany:

And I probably would have laughed at the suggestion for one simple reason:  none of these people speak English.

We all struggle to create coherent sentences in German, and every week we get so much better.  Yes, every day we learn German together at school.

I never realize how much better we can speak until I’m in a repeat situation (like when I’m at the post office buying stamps or in a touristy area giving directions in German).  And slowly, our conversations grow and grow, too.

Moving to Germany has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.  Do you have something that you’ve always been interested in doing but you’re just SO VERY SCARED?

Try it!  Or take a step toward trying it.  When you begin moving in that direction, it’s amazing how much easier it gets to work toward that experience or change. My classmates and I are, in many ways, starting from the ground up.  But if we didn’t begin at the bottom, where would we be now?

You can’t change your life in a snap, though you can imagine where you want to be.  Then you start from there and just keep going.  Like with German – you start learning to count to ten and how to introduce yourself.

You can’t declutter your home or be an instant blogging success.  You can, however, get rid of one thing or write something from your heart.  Maybe you’ll get rid of all that clutter in life eventually.  Maybe your blog will become a big hit.  Or you might just learn along the journey that clutter can be okay sometimes.  Maybe you don’t want an enormously successful blog.  Or at least that’s what I’m discovering in this journey.  I’m loving so many other things so much more.

When I began German class again in November, I told Martin, “I’m going to do this.  I’m going to get to the German integration exam in April.  I am!”  Now April is half over.  I’m almost there.  645 hours of class with piles of homework and mountains of new vocabulary and exams later.  I’M ALMOST THERE.

I’ll gladly cheer for you on your journey, and I hope you can cheer cheer cheer for you, too.  It all begins with wanting to take a step.  And then the next step.  There’s no greater joy than reaching your destination and thinking about where it can take you next.

What types of risks and challenges have you undertaken?  Or any that you dream of? Perhaps you’ve always wanted to come visit me in Berlin… hehe (Let me know if you’re in town!)  Have you learned something about reaching goals that you could share?  What is it that makes you feel alive in this journey?

If you’d like to catch more of my experiences in working toward my goal of speaking German (right down to being called “Kevin” for weeks and weeks), you’ll want to check out these stories: I Forget English, Getting a German Visa, Learning to Speak a Foreign Language, Culture, Class, & Getting Called Kevin, and to wrap it up – Finding Joy.