I just returned from a walk and took my camera along hoping to replenish my stock of Daily Photos. I have taken that walk many times during the past month, but with a camera in hand, I chose to see more. After spending so much time in a place, it is easy to train yourself to look away from what you don’t want to see and from all the things that do not affect you. So far on this website, I have posted pretty pictures of castles and flowers, but I haven’t posted pictures of what makes up a larger majority of this country-poverty.
Unlike the United States, the zoning in Lithuania leaves much to be desired. For the most part (there are some exceptions), there is not a “nice” area of larger or newer homes. Everything is mixed together. During the mile walk from V’s house to Maxima (Walmart), we pass everything from brand new construction to soviet apartment buildings and wooden houses without running water. There are dilapidated homes, with slanted roofs, housing a yard full of chickens that they use to feed their families. This is in the middle of the second largest city in Lithuania, a city that is almost the same size as the city I am from. Yet, after awhile, I stopped noticing these things. Houses that I would normally associate with “rough” areas of the United States start to look good, sometimes really good. I honestly can’t decide if this is good or bad. I want to say that it is bad, but at the same time, I am content with what I have and what I can afford here. In a sense, I feel like I am capable of surviving and living better than a lot of the population with what I already have at the age of 25. There is not a sense of urgency to advance in the work place, to earn more, and to accumulate more and more material goods. My one suitcase holds more clothes than the closets of most Lithuanians. Here, I’m okay with wearing the same shirt two (or three) days in a row. It’s just a different mentality. Sometimes it takes being somewhere poorer to appreciate all the things you have that you too often take for granted.
I can say all of this, but I still want to live in the United States. The American Dream is real. It is much easier to crawl out of a dark hole and to make something more of your life back home. I am so appreciative that what your family does and how they live does not have to define how you live or what you do. I just wish that it was as easy to see all the things I already have, instead of all the things I want or have yet to get. Life sometimes seems too much like a race. If you stop to breathe and to appreciate things, someone else will reach your ultimate goal first, and others will let you know it. That’s why I love to travel. It gives you a chance to reflect and to look at life from a completely different perspective. The sense of urgency and time tick-tock’ing away is lessened, and it lets you really see what you want and how you should go about getting it.
Hi, nice posts there :-) thank’s exchange for the intriguing advice