Top 10 Things I Have Learned from Living in Madrid for a Month

I´ve officially been here for a month! That´s so crazy to me becaues it still feels like I just got here. But I figured I would share the top 10 things I have learned from living in Madrid so far. So here it goes, in no particular order....

10. Don´t Take Yourself Too Seriously
Once you move to a country where you don´t fully understand the language yet, this is crucial. You make mistakes when it comes to the language, culture, and basically everything but it´s not the end of the world. You really can´t take yourself too seriously.

9. Stop Worrying
This was a big one for me because I´m the type of person that worries about EVERYTHING. But ¨no pasa nada¨ has really rubbed off on me. What is worrying going to do? It´s not going to fix anything and it´s only going to stress me out. I´ve come to realize that worrying is such a waste of time, especially when it comes to things I have no control over. It will all work out...no pasa nada.

8. Appreciate the Journey
 I have had some of my best experiences here simply becaues I got lost and found something cool. I have learned to appreciate the journey becaue sometimes getting there is just as fun as the destination.

7. Lean into Discomfort...It´s the Only Way to Grow
This is something that I was told all the time while I was pledging AKPsi and I can truly appreciate it now that I´m in Madrid. Being in a culture that is not your own is uncomfortable to say the least. You literally feel like an outsider allllll the time. I´m not familiar with the food, customs, language...and it really is uncomfortable. But you have to accept the discomfort because it really does help you grow. Take for instance the food here (which I could write a NOVEL about but I wont lol). I am a notoriously picky eater but being in Madrid, yes has made me extremely uncomfortable, but has also really forced me to grow. I can´t be a picky eater here or else I´ll starve, so I have to adapt. This experience has already helped me to grow so much as a person I can only imagine how big of an impact it will have after 5 months.

6. Slow Down
Living and working in DC you get really accustomed going at an extremely fast pace. I´m used to doing 5 million things at once because that´s what´s normal for me. I´ve actually never had a semester in college where I wasn´t working and/or interning. DC is such an amazing city full of ambition and opportunity and I refuse to miss out on anything...so I literally do everything. But here it is sooooooo much different. There is a much slower pace to life here. No one is in a rush. Everyone is kind of just going with the flow. Being here has really helped me to just slow down and appreciate life.

5. Be Thankful
I literally cannot even describe how thankful I am that I get to have this experience. And thankful for my life back in the States in general. I get to see the world...I can never complain about anything ever again. I´m living my dream and I honestly can´t remember the last time I was this happy. I am so thankful for that. I am also SO thankful that I have such amazing parents who support me in whatever it is that I do. They are amazing and I literally thank God every single day that I have them cause I really wouldn´t be here if it wasn´t for them.

4. Stay Focused
Coming to a new contry and traveling all the time is so exciting it´s really easy to get distracted and forget why you´re here. I wrote down a few goals that I have for the semester and it has really helped. Becoming fluent is obviously the biggest one and it is something that I am working toward everyday. You have to stay focused on what you want to accomplish otherwise it won´t happen. 
 
3. Do What Makes You Happy
It´s always been my dream to travel the world and be fluent in Spanish. And I´m already halfway there...kind of lol. Seriously, do what makes YOU happy, because at the end of the day it´s your life and you have to live with the consequences.

2. What Other People Think Doesn´t Matter
Being here has done WONDERS for my ability to not care what other people think. People stare at me all the time here. They´ll literally stare at you till the point where you wanna say take a picture (It´s not in a bad way either, I just really wish I knew how to say it´s not polite to stare in Spanish). And you know what...I could care less now (I honestly don´t know if it´s because I look weird to them or what but I´ve given up trying to figure it out. It´s probably because I look really foreign to them and the only people of color here are Asians and African immigrants and I don´t look anything like the African immigrants. It used to really bother me when I first got here but I don´t even pay attention to it anymore). Who cares? People will always stare at you, talk about you, look at you funny...but at the end of the day does it really have any relevance? There is a VERY select group of people whose opinions actually matter to me...other than that.....*kanye shrug*.

1. BE PATIENT
This has definitely been the number 1 lession I have learned since being here. Patience truly is a virtue and it is something that I have always needed to work on. This experience has FORCED me to be patient. Everything in Spain is a lot slower than I´m used to and as a result I have become more patient. Especially when it comes to learning Spanish. Yea it´s frustrating that I don´t fully know the language yet but I will get there. Patience is key :).

xo.