Returning Home

It has been two weeks since I returned home from my sojourn bouncing around Europe. I was petrified to return because I feel like I want to live in Europe. I could make a good argument for every city that I visited. From Budapest and it's emerging economy and Euro-Turkish architecture to the quiet and serene lakefront in Finnland. I can make my home anywhere. So, here I am in Charlotte, NC thinking that I might be able to handle it for another two years before getting an international placement. Let's focus on the objectives which are to work smart, efficient, and with a sense of urgency to hopefully become a senior as soon as possible. But I choose to enjoy my time, however long and at whatever level. After spending the summer more or less getting to know where I am in life and what's important I have decided not to let things get worked up too much and I am going to take time for me. A weekend off means going to the mountains for a hike, enjoying a football game with my dad, or just taking in a book on the patio...

The point is that I have worked hard to get to this point, so have a lot of people, and I choose to enjoy life and be happy as much and as often as possible. Happy for me means enjoying my friends and family, traveling to new and exciting places, enjoying going to work every morning and satisfaction when the job is completed, discovering new food, wine, beer, and spirits through restaurants, dinner parties, or just plain luck, and perhaps most important to me right now is to continue my dedication to physical exercise because it has given me renewed confidence and inspiration. I have lost 52 pounds since last December and I feel great. I have worked from the very strict diet to get the first 30 pounds trimmed off into a mode now where I don't worry about what I eat, but how much of it. Using this strategy over the summer I trimmed an additional 20 pounds. However, that was during a time when I was walking almost everywhere and sometimes not eating enough because of time or money. Now that I am back I am working on how best to continue to lose an additional 10-20 pounds and incorporate a new phase of workout and diet since I am beginning a career that will require me to travel. It will prove challenging but I look forward to this new hurdle and I think the experiences of the last few years will serve me well to be successful, professionally and personally.