Break Some Eggs

Aalborg, Denmark

Have you realized that the darkest nights are the ones where you can count the most stars? Some of the happiest people I know have lived through a very specific rock-bottom that gave them the drive to run towards any goal they wanted and not stop until either they got it, or found another one to strive towards. But what I have never encountered is someone who has managed to reach a goal in their life that they wanted REALLY badly... Alone. Even if the goal is individual or if the way to get past that obstacle cannot be managed by more than one person... The way there, the guts to do it, the push, inspiration, motivation, hug, scold you needed to get There or do That, came from him or her who you took for granted until you realize they helped you more than anyone should.

They won't like me, I don't even speak their language, they're blonde and I am not, they're tall and I am not... So many weird excuses came to mind when I finally had reached one of my most well known goals in youth: going to a danish high school and living there without my Costa Rican parents. I remember it like it was yesterday, I called her at midnight danish time which was 8am in Costa Rica... Of course I woke her up, but "I need someone" i thought, while truthfully I needed HER...

"Moooorning!" she said with a waking up voice that I knew all to well.

"I'm scared or nervous or I don't know but I can't sleep and school starts tomorrow"

"I knew you would call" -she was great at making fun of me- "you will do great, meet lots of crazy people like you and they will all wonder where you are from and that will break the ice"

"Exactly! what if I'm the only weirdo that doesn't speak good danish?"

She laughed... "well then, it's their loss of not getting to become your friends, I am sure you will charm them, just be you. I like YOU, why wouldn't they?". 

"I guess..." - I was too worried to see that she had complimented me - "sorry to wake you"

And here came the push:

"it's fine, I think you have to understand something... I know you think you are scared and that you may not feel very courageous right now. But the truth is that the very fact that you are halfway across the world, taking a bike to highschool in Denmark as a decision YOU chose and that not a lot of people around you supported that idea... Stop thinking about the eggs you had to break to get to where you are and take in the fact that this is one of your biggest dreams. This is the part where you stop thinking about others and take in what you have accomplished to get here at this age and not at 40."

If you do not know me or even if you do, think about that crazy dream you had as a kid to do something you thought was not possible, Disney, the pyramids, becoming a dancer or musician, buying that ONE lego or toy... Any seemingly impossible dream that you hoped Santa could wrap and bring and probably would not... That was and still is my passion for Denmark, that one place where you do not understand why it means THAT much. 

I hung up that call and biked to the first school day with my iPod blasting "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.  I made friends for life that year and some months that I lived and studied at Hasseris, and I never got to thank HER. But I did realize much later that she was the one that helped me make that year, one of the best I have ever had, even if she was not there, even if I know nothing of her since that time.

So go Break Some Eggs, and in the way appreciate the people you have the amazing chance to meet and grow from and with.

this was my class... I guess they weren't all blond and tall