Today was a very interesting day; well, not VERY, but it was interesting enough for me to want to blog about it. Around noon-ish, I went down to the Rotary Club of Monmouth-Independence to drop off a banner that the District Governor from my Rotary district in Korea gave to me. After I got there, I was invited to stay for lunch/the rest of the meeting.
It was very eerie to sit in a room I sat in two years prior. I couldn't help but let my mind wander to when I sat in my first meeting after being accepted as the exchange student for that club. I honestly can't believe that it happened two years ago. I used to be so afraid of putting myself out there and into new situations. It's crazy to think that the person I used to be was gutsy enough to try to go to a foreign country. Today, I think it's crazy that I haven't traveled in over a month.
I keep looking back to the person I used to be and the things I used to want. Did you know I wanted to be a French Pastry Chef? I used to watch documentaries and read recipe books and study French (kind of). Every time I look into the past, I'm in shock that I have traveled so much (both physically and mentally). This world is so incredibly big and wonderful; why should I have to limit myself to one career?
Did you ever hear the story of Frank Abagnale Jr.? It's the story that the movie Catch Me If You Can, with Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, was based on. Frank Abagnale Jr. was a kid (about my age) that was one of the biggest and most efficient check-scam artists. He ran away from home when he was 16 and had no way to make money, because no one was going to hire a teenager with no education. He actually altered his license to make himself 10 years older to potential employers. But this wasn't enough for him to survive off of.
What he would do was he would go to this different businesses and "interview" the managers, so that he could get enough information in order to create false checks to cash. Over the course of him doing this, Frank was a pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, and a film director (among others). He would move state-to-state, job-to-job, persona-to-persona in order to evade police and imprisonment. It took the FBI about 5 years to catch him. When they finally did, Frank was imprisoned for four years out of his 12-year sentence, before the FBI hired him to help them track down and catch other check-scam artists.
Now, in no way am I condoning what Frank Abagnale Jr. did. But I do admire him. He wanted to see the world and he found a way to make it happen.
When I look forward into my life, I always have about 1,000 different dreams. I've always admired Frank, because he didn't limit himself to one life or one career. When he wanted to live a different life than he was living, he did; even if he did do it by illegal means. In my life, I hope I can have the mindset of what Frank did, without having the criminal tendencies he did.
When I look forward at my future, it's always been a little bit hazy. It's always been that way, because I have so many dreams and so many expectations for myself in this great, wide world. Why should I have to limit myself to one life, when I can live as many as I want?
Until next time,
Madi
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