Another average day

Waking up early has never been my thing, and my father would be the biggest proponent of this claim. However, conditioning has changed my norm. Now I am lucky if I can make it to 7:30 on an off day, and work days I'm up at 6:30. Yuck.

After getting myself ready, I stroll out of my simple concrete apartment and jump on my motorbike. I weave through traffic in the brisk morning air and make the car traffic seem like it's at a stand still. I am usually at my desk by 7:30, and like most westerners in the morning, I go straight for the black gold, a fresh morning cup that will bring me the energy to conduct morning lessons. The rest of the day is as you would assume it, spent working. Relating to, entertaining and encouraging Thai teens. Even on my worst days I feel lucky to get such a stimulating job, one in which I assist creating understanding through the obstacle of a language barrier. Once class has ended, this feeling is only exacerbated by the view from my classroom window, that of the sacred mountain, Doi Suthep.

After work, I navigate through the traffic back home like a bat fluttering through the night sky, weaving, dashing and swooping for insects. However, I'm zig-zagging for openings between cars, and speeding through gaps to make my trip the quickest it can be. This is one of the great rhythms of my routine. The exciting feeling I get while riding replaces the sensations that I used to seek out in adventure sports. The ones I can't do here in Thailand.

Winding down my day, I walk the street looking for cheap food in my neighborhood. Make shift ventilation fans shoot wafts of spice-rich smoke into the air from home made sausages on the grill as I pass. Green papaya salad, fresh vegetables and chopped fruit litter the street stalls with splashes of natural color among the array of visual stimulation. The options seem endless, and considering the cheap prices you can eat as if your stomach is bottomless.

It's around this often solo evening ritual in which I find myself in thought. Thoughts that are often like my words; rambling and unstoppable. Within these thoughts I find myself warmed by the adoration of this simple and exciting life that I live. I find myself thankful for what I have been afforded, for what I have sought out, and for what these decisions have brought back to me. I reflect on just how average my average day is, and I bask in the notion that each is anything but. Gratification is an understatement at that point.

Navigating a motorbike through traffic, teaching teens a second language through the division of a language barrier, catching a brilliant view of a sacred location, having my senses ignited by vast gastronomic delights and cultural differences, and having the freedom of time to sit back and reflect on all of it with an open mind and heart. If that's average, I'll take it.