My 1/3 Life Crisis
I was going to title this my mid-life crisis. But instead decided it would be nice to live past 50, thus the third life crisis. It may be a bit optimistic still, 75 would be a nice age to reach. Talk to me in 50 years.
Yes, I will admit it. I'm a 25 year old, white caucasian male and I feel like I am hitting my mid-life crisis about 15 years early. Maybe it’s a new feature of us Gen TwiXer's, I don't know. So in my last 16 months here in the Philippines, all and all I thought I was getting healthier. You know; a rice and fish diet, almost no TV, lots of walking, high heat all year, riding my bike, swimming almost every day. All these things are true, with the exception of my hypothesis on overall healthiness.
I just returned this past weekend from two weeks in Manila for my mid-service conference. This really only entailed a bunch of medical checks, a required Physical, Dental, and Optical exam. The three appointments started on a positive note. Dental went great. Which was a surprise considering the average Filipinos love of a substance called sugar. Ask those who have come to visit. Its in everything, and I mean loaded in everything; spaghetti, bread, soups, stews, fish dishes. You name it, it has sugar here. That and I still have a slight Mountain Dew addiction (it is cheaper than bottled water, and so good cold!). So a cavity or two was expected. I was not the least disappointed to find out I was wrong.
That was where the good news stopped. Apparently a fish and rice diet is really good for you, unless you have a bottle of soy sauce a week addiction. Apparently pouring liquid salt all over your rice isn't good. It tends to cause a little thing that goes around in my family. High Blood Pressure.
I also found that if you have a planters wart, get it treated ASAP. If you let it go for...um....I don't know...2 years (to be fair it didn't bother me till about 2 months ago) it hurts like a (insert random profanity here) to have taken out. I would think that being cut up by a knife once was enough on my little joy ride to Manila. I was wrong. I also had what is called as "jeep's disease" here. Don't freak out, it basically is nothing more than an ingrown hair on my lower back, upper buttocks area. But, yep you guessed it. It had to be removed as well.
Take the above events and couple them with my getting my first pair of eye glasses ever, the eyes are a going too, all in a matter of 4 days and that equals a bunch of crazy "I'm getting old, my body's falling apart" thoughts in my head. I know I'm only 25, but those are the thoughts I had. Thus my early mid-life crisis. I don't have the money to go buy a fancy sports car, I'm not married so I can't have an affair, and I'm too young for sleeping with a younger women to have an overwhelming affect on me....hmmm....maybe I'll look for a Ms. Robinson. Basically at my age I'm ill equipped to deal with a mid life crisis. I hope for the next one I am better prepared.
The good news. After cutting out soy sauce for 2 weeks my blood pressure dropped drastically. My wounds from my surgeries are healing well. I look damn good in my new glasses. Maybe its all not that bad after all. I will add that after spending two weeks in Manila, I don't want to ever spend two weeks there again. There were some sporadic evenings/afternoons that were very enjoyable. But for the most of my two weeks there (all due to above medical issues) I just missed my house at site. Manila was loud, expensive, busy, and I was just another "white rich foreigner" there. The ill feeling I had in Manila added to my crisis mind set as well. Since I have returned to site stuff has gone great and I quickly slipped back into my enjoyable "island lifestyle." The crisis is over. Life is good again.
Next blogg, a general schedule of my events on my upcoming visit to the States.
Yes, I will admit it. I'm a 25 year old, white caucasian male and I feel like I am hitting my mid-life crisis about 15 years early. Maybe it’s a new feature of us Gen TwiXer's, I don't know. So in my last 16 months here in the Philippines, all and all I thought I was getting healthier. You know; a rice and fish diet, almost no TV, lots of walking, high heat all year, riding my bike, swimming almost every day. All these things are true, with the exception of my hypothesis on overall healthiness.
I just returned this past weekend from two weeks in Manila for my mid-service conference. This really only entailed a bunch of medical checks, a required Physical, Dental, and Optical exam. The three appointments started on a positive note. Dental went great. Which was a surprise considering the average Filipinos love of a substance called sugar. Ask those who have come to visit. Its in everything, and I mean loaded in everything; spaghetti, bread, soups, stews, fish dishes. You name it, it has sugar here. That and I still have a slight Mountain Dew addiction (it is cheaper than bottled water, and so good cold!). So a cavity or two was expected. I was not the least disappointed to find out I was wrong.
That was where the good news stopped. Apparently a fish and rice diet is really good for you, unless you have a bottle of soy sauce a week addiction. Apparently pouring liquid salt all over your rice isn't good. It tends to cause a little thing that goes around in my family. High Blood Pressure.
I also found that if you have a planters wart, get it treated ASAP. If you let it go for...um....I don't know...2 years (to be fair it didn't bother me till about 2 months ago) it hurts like a (insert random profanity here) to have taken out. I would think that being cut up by a knife once was enough on my little joy ride to Manila. I was wrong. I also had what is called as "jeep's disease" here. Don't freak out, it basically is nothing more than an ingrown hair on my lower back, upper buttocks area. But, yep you guessed it. It had to be removed as well.
Take the above events and couple them with my getting my first pair of eye glasses ever, the eyes are a going too, all in a matter of 4 days and that equals a bunch of crazy "I'm getting old, my body's falling apart" thoughts in my head. I know I'm only 25, but those are the thoughts I had. Thus my early mid-life crisis. I don't have the money to go buy a fancy sports car, I'm not married so I can't have an affair, and I'm too young for sleeping with a younger women to have an overwhelming affect on me....hmmm....maybe I'll look for a Ms. Robinson. Basically at my age I'm ill equipped to deal with a mid life crisis. I hope for the next one I am better prepared.
The good news. After cutting out soy sauce for 2 weeks my blood pressure dropped drastically. My wounds from my surgeries are healing well. I look damn good in my new glasses. Maybe its all not that bad after all. I will add that after spending two weeks in Manila, I don't want to ever spend two weeks there again. There were some sporadic evenings/afternoons that were very enjoyable. But for the most of my two weeks there (all due to above medical issues) I just missed my house at site. Manila was loud, expensive, busy, and I was just another "white rich foreigner" there. The ill feeling I had in Manila added to my crisis mind set as well. Since I have returned to site stuff has gone great and I quickly slipped back into my enjoyable "island lifestyle." The crisis is over. Life is good again.
Next blogg, a general schedule of my events on my upcoming visit to the States.
posted by Lloyd at 10:23 AM
2 Comments:
so where is a picture of you in the studly glasses?? =)
Glad that you are still doing well after your bad check up trip. You are gonna have to post a pic with the glasses, much anticipated! Hey, i just posted some new pics. Remember King Solomon? the local Reggae band? yeah got some pics of those cats. check it out sometime, and keep up the photography, i always like seeing new pics from you. Take care..
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