Showcase April - Thoughts from a front desk
So long story short, I'm covering some shifts in the front desk of a hostel. I could've gotten a more ambitious job or a longer term thinking gig, but the truth is I already have a plane ticket to leave Mexico in a few weeks, so committing to anything other than volunteering would be the wrong move for me, not to mention that it would be an asshole kind of move towards my employer. So volunteering it is.
It's not that I'm a cheap bastard and I don't want to pay a formal rent. Well, maybe I am, but that's not the main reason I'm currently part of this gig in Mexico. It's got to do more with the fact that volunteering in a hostel is like traveling without moving. You get to meet people from all over the world, share experiences, create memories and at the same time, enjoying life at its fullest without having to worry too much about other stuff rather than the short term problems.
This comes in handy, especially because as I mentioned in some of my previous posts, I'm planning to study German in Europe for a few months and then, probably will study a Master degree. That means that if everything goes according to plan - which is ambitious to assume, especially since plans never work out the way we want them to when it comes to life - I'll have a couple of years studying, working and adapting to a new country. This means that I'll embrace all the hostel time I can get before I have to cross the Atlantic Ocean once more.
Anyway, that was just a big intro. When it comes to freewrites, one of the first rules - at least for me - is to let your mind flow and your ideas come into words; no editing, no deleting phrases, no proofreading and definitely no revised editions. This means that sometimes I start a free write - just like this one - with a topic on my mind or wanting to get something out of my chest, but the pen (or in this case the keyboard) decides to take me towards other shores.
It's just like life. You have some plans in mind and some goals in your head, but sometimes father destiny has other plans for you. And you have to accept them and embrace them, you gotta pay attention to these signs and read them, else you'll end up sticking to a plan that is no longer yours and in the end will bring you nothing but a feeling of unfulfillment.
Wait, is unfulfillment really a word? You know when you feel fulfilled after achieving a goal or reaching a dream? Well, with that improvised word I meant exactly the opposite.
Right now I'm in that fence. I'm in the middle of making a change of plans. Not too big, not too raw or exaggerated, just a tweak in the plans. Remember how I told you that I was quite undecided between studying my masters in Germany or Austria, particularly between Berlin or Vienna? Well, if you paid attention to that post - yeah, I mean you two guys, the only ones who actually read my posts haha - I mentioned I decided I wanted to go to Vienna because I have a couple of friends based there and the overall cost of Uni and languages courses is cheaper.
A few days ago I met someone based in Berlin. Let's just leave it at that. After some conversations, I decided to think about giving Berlin a try before making a rock engraved decision. After all, it's a decision that could be important. Worst case scenario, I don't like Berlin and I end up in Vienna. Best case scenario, I love Berlin and I get along so well with this person living there that I decide to make it long term and begin my language courses there.
I have no idea why I went there, the topic I mean. I had in my mind to write about how life in a hostel affects you and how my volunteering shifts are messing up with my sleeping schedule and how my meds and medical treatment is still working out perfectly, how I'm lowering my smoking rate and my drinking game is doing good, but I guess my subconscious wanted to get this out of my chest.
That's how freewrites work amigos, you gotta let them flow.
It took me five hours to write this, not because it's long - well it kinda is, I hope you two guys finish reading it before you get bored - but because I'm writing it literally from the hostel's front desk computer. This means I have to actually work and I can only free write in between check ins or when I have some spare time. I wrote this in 3 different batches. I bet you can tell where I had to stop and I had to start again after a while, perhaps you can even tell my mood by the writing style.
Oh yeah, you can tell a lot from a person's writing style. This style is the same, there's only a few writers who can actually manage to fluently write in several styles and manage to keep their readers interested. I'm not a prodigy but I know I'm good. Perhaps I have 2 to 3 successful writing styles where I can keep the readers interested, no matter what I writing about, but I am not a genius and probably you already stopped reading.
Well, these writing styles can and will be influenced by the writer's mood unless he's incredibly talented - which I am not. So perhaps you can tell how my mood changed from 9 am when I started this piece and 2 pm, right when I'm finishing up and taking this picture:
Anyway, those are my current thoughts. I am about to head out and play some basketball, go for a run, hit the beach and then get some Steem work done. After that, I might hit the Salsa lessons - oh yeah, I'm learning Salsa, as it turns out, no matter how latino you are and how much you have dancing in your blood, Salsa is hard as fuck and you actually need to take lessons to successfully dance it correctly.
I hope you liked this write up fresh from my mind - or fingers, or perhaps keyboard from the hostel, not really sure what applies better.
This post was originally posted in January 2020 and it's part of my initiative called showcase April, where I'll post the best content I've done over the past three years.