priorities

---

Home sweet home. I am still in Copenhagen, learning just as much about myself in one place as I can traveling all over. Funny how that works. Most recently, I realized something SI directors tried to tell me but I didn’t want to believe- I consistently get really excited about an idea or a future project and then have trouble following through on it. The problem is, I want to do so many things that I simply do not have the time and then I just randomly choose what should have a higher priority. There have been three separate things- giving my host family a calendar of my plans for the semester, going to a soccer game with my host brother, and going to Paris with my host sister that I have told each I would follow through with and definitely have not. Mostly, I don’t follow through with things because of time constraints. I do not have enough hours in the day for things I do not consider top priority- I hate making a calendar of events that will happen in over a week so I considered that not really a top priority. The problem, of course, is that it is not really fair to my host family to not set aside time to help them out. They are letting me live here, and it would be nice if I helped them plan. In return, however, they tell me nothing in advance but the eye for an eye argument is a little old and there’s always the saying- two rights don’t make a wrong. Furthermore, I don’t have time in the semester for a trip to Paris, and I think I will be gone every time FCK plays so I cant got to a game with my host brother. The result of these problems is me growing distant from my host family. I think they are such nice people but am not really comfortable around them. This time, my inability to prioritize as I should has really slapped me in the face.
I have also lowered other priorities of mine that were once quite high. While I still want to make good grades, I choose exploring Copenhagen and cultural experiences to studying. My grades aren’t awful, but they also aren’t what they could be. Every time I reflect on this issue, I decide that this one semester, it is going that my grades aren’t what is most important to me- as this experience is once in a lifetime, and grades wont matter later in life
In continuing my reflection on priorities and what is and is not important to me, I made one of the most important decisions of my life. I have decided to quit soccer at school and play here in Copenhagen. Soccer at school made me so unhappy. I thought about my scholarship and the girls and division I soccer for four years, but none of that is worth how miserable I was. I quit for so many reasons that would be mostly inappropriate for me to post, but it was a good choice. While I will miss soccer at home, I am 100% sure this was the correct decision to make. I have been reflecting on the issue for about a year now and, so, in no way rushed it. Playing in Copenhagen is everything it should be. We run a lot, but play more than we run, and it is so fun. I enjoy every minute. Still, playing D1 soccer for three years did give me one of the most important life lessons I can learn: I can always push myself harder. Whether it be running and physical activity or so much to do without much time to do it- I can always push myself further than I expect. Of course, I have a limit- which is where priorities must come in- but what I have to do can get done.
Lastly, a comment on the VA tech shootings: hearing about the whole thing while in a country with no guns is very enlightening. People can simply not understand how the whole thing is possible. It certainly makes me question the necessity of guns. People don’t even have them for protection here. The logic is: if someone else doesn’t have a gun, you really don’t need a gun for protection. America needs stricter gun laws definitely; I hope at least some good comes from this incident as right now there is only bad. The more I am here, the farther left I lean.

---