"The more I step outside of my comfort zone the more I achieve and create!"....

What does “Growing Up” even mean?

If it’s just getting older than “Growing up” is just a matter of years spent on earth but I’m not sure it’s that simple. Years spent on earth might be a factor in “Growing up” but it doesn’t answer the question. How many “older” people do you know that still act like 5 year olds?

If it’s just learning information (aka high school, trade school, College) than it means the more “book smart” you are the more you “Grown Up” you are. Again I think learning information is a “Growing up” factor but doesn’t hold much water on its own. How many “nerds” do you know that are still immature?

I think “Growing up” is really a creative way of calling the journey of finding who you are? Of defining yourself, of developing your identity and yourself. It’s something that doesn’t have a destination. You don’t get a diploma when you are done “growing up” because plainly said you never stop growing up (or you never should). You never stop finding out who you are and defining yourself. Yes age and education are factors, but they are tools in your quest in life.

Through education you are exposed to new ideas, and information. You are exposed to different people in your classrooms; and you experience and learn about different aspects of the world. This helps form your own ideas/views....that whole “critical thinking” stuff they kept saying in school remember? The downfall is that sometimes you end up adopting other’s ideas as your own and never get the opportunity to develop your own.

Age allows you the time to experience new things, situations etc. that challenge you and force you to make tough decisions about your life. Just because you are older doesn’t necessarily mean that you are more “Grown up” because age does not correlate directly with life experience. A hard working self made middle class young adult can have more experience and thus have the potential to be more “Grown up” than a rich young adult that has had everything handed to them.

The problem is that many people get “stuck,” or “stall” in regards to “Growing up”....Their life gets too routine, same friends, same activities, same job etc. They get comfortable and they’re happy, life is good. Uncomfortable, difficult situations are kept at a minimum and life is relatively easy. Life is a “comfort zone,” doesn’t sound bad does it? I agree sounds pretty damn good but you are still in a rut. With no new experiences, and/or difficult situations you are basically “stuck” the way you are. It’s a way of saying that you are content with where you are in regards to your development as a person, defining who you are etc. But inevitably difficulties will find their way into your life and you won’t know how to deal with them since you are not used to them.

This has been my opinion for years which is why I never thought that I would fall into my own “comfort zone” but I did. I eventually started to feel the effects, any little difficulty would send off the wall. In Phx I had everything I needed to be happy, great family and friends, a decent job, great weather but something was missing. I was in a “rut,” my development as a person had come to a halt and I came to find out that that was why I wasn’t completely happy.

I had to make a change....

This is one of the main reasons that I moved to Austria. A way of picking up my Etch-a- Sketch and give it one hell of a shake. I thought had an idea of how hard this “shake” was going to be and prepared myself but I was still scared shitless; even with the fact that I was going to be living with some great people and had a job lined up. I took the leap knowing that a net would appear and that such an experience was going to be great in my “Growing up.”

The sad truth is I totally underestimated the difficulty of this adventure. It’s been one hell of a roller coaster. Here are all the hurdles I’ve hit along the way. (My biggest thanks to Heinrich, Andrea and Phillip, without them this list would be a lot longer):

--   Lost my job to someone more qualified than me after only a week of working there. Found another one fairly quickly but it’s not as nice as I’d like it to be so still looking but it’s a job that pays so I’m happy for now.

--   Had to visit the German Consulate three times to finally turn in everything to renew my passport. First visit I didn’t have a certain form, second visit I didn’t have enough cash to pay for it, third time was the charm, should have it send to me in a couple of months.

--   bought a cell phone with a great month by month plan, but still jumping through all the hoops (there’s a lot of them) to get the service started. One of them being that I can only use an Austrian bank account to pay for service (been surviving with the 100 free minutes they give you in the beginning).

--   LANGUAGE even though my German came back quickly I’m still not completely comfortable with it and the dialects here are tough to understand. Small talk is tough and picking up on jokes etc. is not easy.

--   Missing my friends and family back home a lot. Didn’t think I was going to miss everyone so much. I miss their support. Not many friends to get a beer with in the evenings, not many friends to go on rides with (road or mtn) etc over here.

--   A new city to get used to. Didn’t think it was going to take me so long to figure out a city but it’s tough. All the small narrow streets seemingly going nowhere and everywhere etc. 

Most of these hurdles are not that big but together they’re a big pain but I’m eliminating them quickly. Others are pretty big and are tough to get over, mostly it’s just a matter of time and patience but it’s still kind of shitty.

The biggest issue is trying to get out of my shell. You see, inherently, I’m a relatively shy person. This might be a surprise to most of you but it’s only when I’m very comfortable in my surroundings that I open up and become social. Took me a couple of years, but in PHX I was able to shed my shell. Now I’m here in a new country, another language, new people, new culture, new surroundings, new friends and a completely different way of life so I’m back in my shell again. I’m hoping it will be easier to get out of than last time.

I’ve broken down a couple of times over here, and even been tempted to fly back home early but that would be the easy way out and would defeat the purpose of this trip. Things will work out and each difficulty/challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow, and even if this is not how I had imagined it being over here I’m still glad I’m here.

 "The more I step outside of my comfort zone the more I achieve and create!" (Thank you Dee Scott for the quote)