The learning

• Patricia does not enjoy doing the exact same routine day after day, with the same surrounding people, even if the scenery is exquisite and ever changing.
• A backpack is not my preferred way of traveling.
• I cannot eat foreign food indefinitely without getting sick. Stomach=no tolerance. Whatsoever.
• I need alone time. A lot of it. Because I’ve been surrounded by others for a lot of my life, I didn’t realize how trapped I would feel if I truly could not leave. 
• No one is going to take care of me. If in some gracious act, they do, I will be thankful and recognize it is temporary. It is my job to lead my own life.
• I need to stop giving my wheel to other people. I realize I am a little old to be getting this, but there was a time in my life, long ago, that when I became overwhelmed, I could count on my family to help me get back on the path. That is no longer a reality. The people I have given my power to have unanimously abused that. Get a clue, girl.
• If you don’t wear makeup you don’t have to wash your face after you cry.
• I can go anywhere in the world, not speak the language and still figure out how to get where I need to go. This is true during the running of the bulls, in a remote small town in Spain or in the Paris airport.
• Though it might seem like a “privileged white girl” problem, I should never go far from a location where I can find a Trente black iced tea with stevia. Hugely deprived. 
• If I have to go somewhere without my favorite iced tea, then a place where a glass of wine is 1.20 is a good substitute. 
• Sometimes you have to spend a lot of money and go far away and feel very very alone to get your head straight, and realize what really matters in life. 

I AM WHAT YOU GIVE ME.