If I told you my only ambition is to be happy, would that be enough?
Now in Curitiba, I am sitting in my family’s backyard listening to Jack Johnson play in the background, hearing the chirps of the birds resting in the trees, and my mother’s conversation in Portuguese with her sister in law. At this moment I am present, I feel the soothing effortless talent of Johnson’s voice, the smells of the churrasco (barbeque) and the slight chill of this Brasilian afternoon on my skin. As I sit here consciously aware of everything occurring in my surroundings I can’t help but think about how much my values have changed with just a 16 hour flight and a transition into a new culture and family. I have left the stresses of my American ambitions of achieving success and going to the best university but now I question myself constantly, “ What is success for me, what are the right ambitions to have for my future, and where should my energy go?” In Brasil, my ambitions for now are to be happy, to try the most un-American things I can find, and to let the experience of it all consume me and spit me out anew. I want to leave Brasil with a new perspective on life and a sense of direction.
Emotions: lost in an abyss of color, culture, language, and thought
