Perspective

I love social media. I love it. I love how I can compile this amazing life abroad that viewers can see through Facebook or Instagram. While I create albums filled with pictures of me petting cute monkeys, standing in front of crumbling temples, draped in a hammock, lounging on white shores next to beautiful men, surfing and kayaking. Then to make it even worse, I tell the world, through a Facebook status, that I'm going to New Zealand for three weeks. "The dream," my friends tell me, "you're living the dream." I bask in the glow of their jealousy. For all of three seconds. Because, dear friends, you need some perspective on "the dream"

I don't have a bed frame. When I leave Korea I'll have traveled to ten countries and five continents, but I don't have a bed frame.

I live in a room smaller than my first dorm room. My apartment building is next to the university so it's filled with youths. Filled I tell you. And yes, I said youths. I don't have a dryer, so in the winter if I want to wear something that's dirty, I need to wash it at least four days ahead of time to be sure it's dry. I don't have a trash can. I view it as a space waster (now I feel like a youth). I don't own a car. I walk forever to get anywhere. When I wash my sheets, I have to sleep on my sleeping pad because I only own one set of sheets. Bedding is expensive.
Good cheese? Forget about it.
Good chocolate or coffee? Good luck.

So, while I create my little world of world traveler, remember that this world traveler has no bed frame. Remember that while this world traveler is in New Zealand she will live on pb&j sandwiches and sleep in the back of a rented van.

But she's still going to New Zealand.
Perspective.