10.13.09
Things have been pretty normal as life on a ship can be. Last night I went and listened to a woman talk about living your life to the extreme. The woman who spoke was named Lynn Felder. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She gave speeches on the disease and has tried to get laws passed. This was her first speaking since the disease took her voice. It was amazing to hear how quiet the union was and see how aptly everyone was listening. Everyone was hanging on her every word. She was speaking about how life can suck, but it is all about your attitude. You can look at life negatively or positively and that makes all the difference. When she was finished speaking, everyone in the room was immediately on their feet. Here is woman, an SAS alum F81, who is confined to a wheel chair. It was sad, but she had such a great attitude.
Tonight we also had the first meeting of Your Voyage of Discovery, which is a group I joined with Kristin and Becky. It is fun getting to know a new group of people on the ship.
I have realized that this voyage is starting to have an effect, or at least one that I am beginning to notice. I look at everything differently. I realize that I have entirely way too much stuff. I expect to downsize greatly when I get home. I have seen such self-less people and even though they have “nothing” I strive to be just like them. They are happy and see the small joys in life. This voyage has emphasized the fact that I never want to be still. I want to make everyone I know get out and experience new things. I thought I had, but have barely scratched the surface. The amazing thing is that this voyage is almost half way over and I can’t imagine what more I am going to see.
The atmosphere on the ship has been a little tense. The global studies mid-term is tomorrow and people are freaking out. I am just kind of over it. The class is so ridiculous. My work load really hasn’t been that bad. I freaking love Dr. Aimee. One reason is that she really cares about us and wants us to learn. But she is very flexible in her schedule and wants everything to be fair. And she is so much fun. For example, today in my international management class (there are only 13 of us including her) there were 3 people missing. Well we decided to have class on Deck 5 aft, but we walked through the pool area on Deck 7 to see who we could find. Well wouldn’t you know we found 2 of the 3. One was reading at a table and the other was playing ping-pong. The looks on their faces were priceless. She told us that at her home university in Denver she calls students who don’t come to class. I love the fact that we can just have class on the back deck. I can’t believe the voyage is half way over! I don’t want to go home!