Back in America

It's been 10 days since I've returned to the United States of America, and I thought I'd end this blog with a summary of lessons learned and experiences had.

First life lesson learned - Never hold back. For my first 3 weeks in Spain, I was holding back. I didn't push myself to meet people. I didn't push myself to experience the new country, and worst off, I lost 3 weeks of my life with no self-enrichment. The contrast between those 3 weeks and the rest of the time I was in Spain really showed me that to be successful and to better my life, I need to push myself and never hold back from unknown opportunities.

Second life lesson learned - Children are difficult. I had a faint idea about this before I lived with my house family, but I think I experienced an extreme on the difficult-children scale. I've learned that kids take work, and when and if I have kids, I know that I'm going to need to put all of my effort into making sure my kids turn out to be awesome. I only hope that I'll be able to do that someday.

Third life lesson - Be friendly and talk to everyone. I already know that I'm an extroverted person, but I figured out that expressing that more can really be fun and helpful. I met soo many random people on the streets of Madrid by just going up and talking to them, and I had some of the most interesting conversations with these people. I've learned that everyone has an interesting story/past to tell, and if you can put up with a little bullshit, you can dive into another person's life if only for a second. I've learned that connecting with people, no matter the amount of time spent with that person, can be very interesting and fun (especially with drunk people at 4am in Madrid).

Fourth life lesson - I don't like drinking alcohol to the point of being drunk. A couple of nights of partying in Madrid really helped me realize this. Even though I'm sure my blood alcohol content never got above the limit to drive, I never felt more comfortable as more alcohol entered my body (I actually felt less comfortable).

Fifth life lesson - Experiences always turn into awesome stories.

Sixth lesson - Never travel tired. I'll never do this again because I don't think I can rely on society to return another lost wallet just because of me not paying attention because of not sleeping the night before. I will always drug myself out the night before trips so I can be fresh the next morning.

Seventh life lesson - Learn as many languages as I can. More languages = more conversations with interesting people. My new goal is to learn Mandarin, because Chinese are going to be kicking ass internationally now and for a long time.

In recap of the summer, I lived in Madrid for 3 months, I gained a Spain accent in Spanish, I taught English to 3 people, I partied, I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, I swam in the Mediterranean sea at Barcelona, I made some good friends, I had awesome experiences, and I had the summer of a lifetime.

I hope all of you had fun keeping up with me through my blog, and I'm sure I'll be having another blog-worthy experience soon.

Besos y abrazos.
Nick Canfield