New Eyes

"New legs!!! Lieutenant Dan! You got new legs!!!" ~Forrest Gump

So back here in KL and I'm in over-active blog mode this week. All that time in airports and such I guess. :-) Oh well, soon comes the time when I'll be back to a posting every couple of weeks, so I guess I'll just enjoy this while it lasts.

Anyway, it's really nice being back, and having gone away long enough to appreciate again my favorite things about Malaysia. Taking the KLIA Express train from the airport to KL Sentral Wednesday morning, instead of putting on my headphones and tuning out the world, I sat and stared out the window. The sun was shining and it was a wet, but cool morning. The lush tropical scenery that had begun to look quite ordinary to me, was once again fascinating and beautiful to me. It was like having new eyes. It was much the same when I went back to visit DC. The old day to day annoyances were quite novel and instead of being irritated with the city so full of people so full of themselves, I was able to enjoy it. People take themselves so seriously there, and in KL people so DON'T take themselves seriously, that it's kind of nice to shuffle back and forth between the two worlds. In DC, I loved every chance I got to drive down the George Washington Parkway at night and look over the lights of the city shimmering on the Potomac. I had a great time catching up with ld friends and seeing the positive changes in their lives over the year I'd been away. Everyone seemed to be thriving with a new sense of purpose and themselves. This morning in KL, my jet lag woke me at a bright and early 4:30am, and at 6 I sat on the balcony listening the sounds of the bells on the Indian temple across the street mix with the strains of the prayer calls from the National Mosque. And I was glad to be here again.

While I was in Michigan somebody at my University posted an erraneous grade report for me on the UM website and gave me the scare of my life. It said I'd gotten a 2.5. Which, a long time ago, during my first undergrad stint at MSU would have elicted little more than a shrug from me. But since I went back to U of A in 2001 and began pulling 4.0's on a regular basis a 2.5 is absolutely unacceptable in my eyes, even if I have been learning in a foreign language. So yesterday I went to the University and met with a few of my professors and to my relief my GPA is somewhere around a 3.3, which I will hopefully raise to a 3.5 after I take my last final next week. But, this whole experience also gave me a chance to see things anew. In thinking that I might have done so poorly, I found that I had the opportunity to sit down and evaluate my progress here so far, redefine my goals, and consider what is the most important to me in my time here. SO now I have the benefit of having taken a new look at myself and deciding what I'd like to improve on instead of just maintaining the status quo...

Being able to take a step back and see the things in your life anew, find a new perspective. When life gets busy and things are going crazy, it's something I rarely remember to do, though I'm certain I could benefit immensly from doing so. Guess I'd better save this entry huh?