Increasingly

So the first week of December (and the ones before that) were busy and headless chicken crazy for several reasons, mainly work-related.

The below conversation was delivered (can you deliver a conversation?) on the Friday of that week, after I got a mild sunburn on the right side of my neck. Other events of the day have not made the cut of my selective memory.

It was a reception kinda thing, by the lakeside, fingerfood and dangerously open bar. Somehow exhaustion and dehydration and stress remove my last existing filters and so I talk freely about whatever crosses my mind.

Somebody asked me the very cliché yet very relevant question: „So Kata, how do you like it here?”

To which I replied, after due consideration: „Increasingly”.

This extremely fascinating story could as well end here, for it says almost all that needs to be said on this topic. But it's important to mention, in case somebody doesn't remember, that on my second day here somebody told me that I wasn't going to last half a year. He probably meant no harm and was having a genuine conversation, but it was defining my actions and attitude for a long time. I wanted to prove him wrong more than I wanted to feel right where I am, and I also wanted to prove wrong everybody else I know was doubting me.

It is also important to state, in case somebody didn't get it, that the expression „increasingly” is accurate. And I was really happy that I found it in that moment. It is no secret that it wasn't and it still isn't always easy, and even I didn't expect it to be so. BUT! I ended up liking what I do and where I live and, most importantly, really liking who I am. And yes, I know, I sound like some tacky self-help book, but whatever. I still have no idea how I got here and what exactly I'm doing here, but I've been winging it all my life, and this time around I quite enjoy it.

Which also means, a big thanks to everybody who was on the supportive side. I knew many of you were worried for me, and not only for the obvious safety reasons (which remain, let's be real), but because you probably also thought I wouldn't last half a year. I wasn't exactly sure myself :). But here we are, me under the mosquito net, and you envying me because I can go to a Christmas party wearing a short sleeve shirt.