I'm not sure if it's always been this way in my life, but recently it has become very clear. Nothing in my life is straight-forward. For some unknown reason everything I try to achieve has to come with some challenge, a spanner in the works, something to overcome. My path is full of detours.
For someone who enjoys driving at the speedlimit, hates slow drivers, dislikes walking because it's inefficient, and likes to shop by walking in, purchasing what's needed and then leaving, detours can be very frustrating. If there is one thing I love it's efficiency. Strange that I am Dutch and not German since they are meant to be the most efficient people, but there you have it.
My love for efficiency has also sparked my love for gadgets. I love my iPhone and all its nifty apps. Now there are apps that are efficient, and there are apps that are the opposite of efficient. Useless, I guess is the word. The Albert Heijn (Dutch supermarket chain) app is terrific as it has cut out the need to write a shopping list, as I tell it what I need, or scan barcodes, but I can also write it online and send it to my phone, or my mother for that matter. The Coles and Woolworths (Australian supermarket chains) are opposite of that. They drive me nuts and I still write a paper shopping list as it's impossible to make a list with them.
I digress. What I'm trying to say is that I have come to understand that this is how my life is. I decide on something, take the required action, and instead of getting what I think I will achieve, I am given a challenge. Often this challenge involves giving all control over to something other than myself and wait patiently. I have just been accepted to university. Again. It only took over four months between me applying, and actually being accepted. A normal person applies, is offered a place or rejected and then starts uni within two months at the most. Not me.
But that's ok. It just means I'm forced to be resourceful, patient and accepting. Which I am slowly becoming. I am starting to embrace my out-of-the-boxness, my square-peg-round-holeness and enjoy my uniqueness. For one, my life is never boring. Never ever. Despite the many infuriating, exhausting, frustrating challenges I am thrown on a regular basis, I am happy.
Really I am. Look, I might get disheartened quite quickly, have a melancholy streak the size of Uluru, and I can get to a point of endless tears and wanting to stay in bed for the rest of my life. But when I get out of bed eventually, I just get on with life. Because I know that things will be ok eventually. I have learned that in my 31 years being Florence Camille Nulens on planet earth.
I have an amazing life. I travel to Europe every year. I always get to skip at least one month of Melbourne's tedious winter to spend time with my wonderful family and friends in Europe. I know cities on the other side of the world, know my way around, feel at home there. I speak several languages, my French might not be fluent, but I know how to order off a menu, and in France that is the most important thing, right? Granted I spend the rest of the year away from family and friends which can be so very lonely at Christmas time, but that is the other side of the coin.
I have a wonderful husband, and a house that is becoming increasingly wonderful. Sure there have been times where I was very close to hopping on a plane and leaving that perfectionist husband and his goddamn endless renovations behind, but truthfully, I always come back. In the end, there is no one I am more comfortable with than with my lovely hubby. He enables me to be this very unique and out-of-the-box girl. He is steady, secure, thorough. And that's just want a girl like me needs.
We have a very comfortable life, with travel, nice things, outings, food on the table, and a relationship that is a source of endless happiness. So despite my uniqueness, I still get to have what everybody wants. And that's pretty goddamn lucky.
For someone who enjoys driving at the speedlimit, hates slow drivers, dislikes walking because it's inefficient, and likes to shop by walking in, purchasing what's needed and then leaving, detours can be very frustrating. If there is one thing I love it's efficiency. Strange that I am Dutch and not German since they are meant to be the most efficient people, but there you have it.
My love for efficiency has also sparked my love for gadgets. I love my iPhone and all its nifty apps. Now there are apps that are efficient, and there are apps that are the opposite of efficient. Useless, I guess is the word. The Albert Heijn (Dutch supermarket chain) app is terrific as it has cut out the need to write a shopping list, as I tell it what I need, or scan barcodes, but I can also write it online and send it to my phone, or my mother for that matter. The Coles and Woolworths (Australian supermarket chains) are opposite of that. They drive me nuts and I still write a paper shopping list as it's impossible to make a list with them.
I digress. What I'm trying to say is that I have come to understand that this is how my life is. I decide on something, take the required action, and instead of getting what I think I will achieve, I am given a challenge. Often this challenge involves giving all control over to something other than myself and wait patiently. I have just been accepted to university. Again. It only took over four months between me applying, and actually being accepted. A normal person applies, is offered a place or rejected and then starts uni within two months at the most. Not me.
But that's ok. It just means I'm forced to be resourceful, patient and accepting. Which I am slowly becoming. I am starting to embrace my out-of-the-boxness, my square-peg-round-holeness and enjoy my uniqueness. For one, my life is never boring. Never ever. Despite the many infuriating, exhausting, frustrating challenges I am thrown on a regular basis, I am happy.
Really I am. Look, I might get disheartened quite quickly, have a melancholy streak the size of Uluru, and I can get to a point of endless tears and wanting to stay in bed for the rest of my life. But when I get out of bed eventually, I just get on with life. Because I know that things will be ok eventually. I have learned that in my 31 years being Florence Camille Nulens on planet earth.
I have an amazing life. I travel to Europe every year. I always get to skip at least one month of Melbourne's tedious winter to spend time with my wonderful family and friends in Europe. I know cities on the other side of the world, know my way around, feel at home there. I speak several languages, my French might not be fluent, but I know how to order off a menu, and in France that is the most important thing, right? Granted I spend the rest of the year away from family and friends which can be so very lonely at Christmas time, but that is the other side of the coin.
I have a wonderful husband, and a house that is becoming increasingly wonderful. Sure there have been times where I was very close to hopping on a plane and leaving that perfectionist husband and his goddamn endless renovations behind, but truthfully, I always come back. In the end, there is no one I am more comfortable with than with my lovely hubby. He enables me to be this very unique and out-of-the-box girl. He is steady, secure, thorough. And that's just want a girl like me needs.
We have a very comfortable life, with travel, nice things, outings, food on the table, and a relationship that is a source of endless happiness. So despite my uniqueness, I still get to have what everybody wants. And that's pretty goddamn lucky.
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