carving out your place!

I'm really excited because Thursday will bring the startup of my American ladies meetings again! It's so nice to have a place where I can talk with women that come from the same place as me, with most of the same traditions and have the same accent as me and want to have the same conversations! I miss those meetings over the summer breaks! However, with the meetings always brings a stark contrast between the two types of women that live here. I am so dreading having to listen to those few of our group whine about how much they hate it here, and turning every positive into a negative. Moving abroad away from your country, culture, and family is not easy! These ladies knew that before they came here and I just don't understand how they can be so miserable and ridiculous. If you hate it that much, go home, otherwise put your big girl panties on and enjoy your unique experiences. It's your life and you still have control. You can't move to a new country and expect people to find you! You must be realistic and rational about what you are getting into. You have to go meet the people! I made friends in Cyprus before I even got here! I used my brain (what's left of it after pregnancy) and my internet. I googled my interests online and found groups here on the island that would foster those interests. If you moved to a new state you wouldn't just sit at home waiting for the community to find you, you have to introduce yourself to the community. Well moving abroad is no different it's just more complicated. You have to consider the new culture and what is acceptable to them. Guess what? They are going to be different, and you have to embrace that! Moving abroad will grow you as an individual and make you a better person. You have to open your mind and your heart (not so far that your brains fall out like my grandma would say) but still be true to yourself. Survival of the fittest they say, well nothing will make you survive like being thrown into a completely different pond where you are different little fish with no school of your own. The same things that make you happy now will be those same things that make you happy anywhere in the world. Moving abroad should be embraced and enjoyed, not feared and hated. My husband loves me and my daughter is amazing! These two people are an integral part of my happiness, but it can't be dependent on them, that's not fair and it's too insular. They have their bad days too! I'm not just a wife and mother, I'm Rebekah. Part of being Rebekah is being a wife and mother but that's not all there is to me, I love to sing, I love to perform, I will die without shopping, I need to laugh at things only other women will understand no matter how metrosexual my husband tries to be for me. I have to be near the water, I love going to the beach, I have to be able to see the water. I love tanning and playing in the sea! My life is not perfect, no one's is! But, my life is happy and I can live day to day enjoying the blessings that have been so mercifully and undeservedly bestowed upon me. Almost all of the things that make me happy(and the previous was just a short list) can be found anywhere in the world. So, why be miserable? What really makes you happy, what can't you live without? Make a list, I'll bet you can find those things almost anywhere! Enjoy your life to the fullest by enjoying yourself and loving yourself to the fullest! You and your family will fleurish for it