Growing up consists of different phases. Newborn becomes infant becomes toddler. “She is already is talking? That’s crazy!” turns into “Her first day of kindergarten? Crazy how fast she’s grown up.” Soon comes “She got her license?”, “She’s a legal adult?”, “She’s graduating college in May?”. “Crazy.” “Crazy.” “Crazy.” For 23 years now that is how my life has been. Getting older has just been a matter of entering new, often intimidating yet stimulating phases of life. And here I am now, taking the time to reflect on it all. It is February 28th, 2019 and my current home is Carlow, Ireland. Six months down, three to go. I just did a coaching session at the school next door, and now I’m back at the IT in order to get some work done and get a workout in. It’s just an ordinary day in the life, nothing too crazy. Yet what I find strangest about this whole experience is the fact that it no longer seems crazy…
As I have just alluded to, the lifestyle that once stimulated me in so many ways no longer seems to do so to the same extent. I often find myself walking down the sidewalk and have to remind myself that I’m in Ireland. Living in this foreign country has just become the norm. It would be crazy if I had a conversation with someone and they didn’t have an Irish accent. It would be crazy if all of the errands I had to run weren’t within a ten minutes-walk. It would be crazy if I walked in a school and the students weren’t dressed in uniforms. In just six months, one of the most daunting yet exciting experiences has become ordinary. And now I have three months left of being able to head to Galway for the weekend, order a Guinness in a pub, be a member of an Irish sports team and come up with practice plans for young basketball players in the community.
Just as Nike’s new female advertisement says, it is important to embrace the crazy. Personally, leaving the United States for a land in which I initially knew one other person is the craziest thing I’ve ever done. But it has been during the transition of this experience from crazy to ordinary that I have grown in a number of ways. Crazy is exhilarating, thought-provoking, challenging and with the right attitude, a lot of fun. As it is in my case, it can also be temporary. Despite how scary or life-changing a new phase may seem, with time it will simply become ordinary life…just as talking, going to kindergarten, obtaining my license, turning 18, graduating from college and now moving to Ireland has. Even though I am well-adapted here, I have just three months left of this temporary phase to take it all in. Come June I must enter the next phase of my life: pursuing a career. Despite how daunting, exhilarating, thought-provoking, challenging and crazy that idea seems, it will all once again become ordinary. And that’s the crazy truth.
