Going with the flow

As I’ve written in this blog over the last few days, this trip has been less than ideal in many ways.

I wasn’t feeling great at the beginning of the trip largely due to jet lag and a long week.

The region does not get much rain, but it has rained nearly every day since I’ve been there.

There’s been a Saharan wind storm which means that sand has been blowing all over Spain. As I sit right now in Malaga, the air quality is hazardous.

I was supposed to fly home tomorrow, but I tested positive for COVID and am now stuck in Spain until I test negative. While I’m blessed to only have very mild symptoms, the indefiniteness of my stay in Spain is a bit anxiety inducing.

It’s been a wild ride to say the least. Regardless, I’m choosing to stay optimistic about the experience. I had a chance to meditate today and think about my trip as a whole. It’s clearly been less than ideal and not the trip I had planned for. On the other hand, I believe I’ve learned a lot about myself and life on this trip.

I’ll go as far to say as that the negative experiences have been an overall net positive for myself as a person. Perhaps facing these hardships alone is exactly what I needed on a trip. Relatively minor inconveniences aside, I’ve been so fortunate in life that things like rain on a vacation or being stuck for an extra few days in a place is nothing really in the grand scheme of things.

I don’t think my life for granted, but the last few years perhaps my gratitude for what I have has been slipping. All the shitty things of the trip aside, it’s been an awesome trip so far.