Life's Good

    Yesterday marked the third month of living in Oman, and the time is continuing to fly by quickly. With only four weeks left in my study abroad experience, I realize how rich this experience has truly been. I have a lot of great stories to tell when I return and I have learned a good amount of leadership lessons.

    However, I have learned a lot about Omani culture too and I am still discovering practices in Omani culture that I want to adapt in my own life and especially at the Academy. One of these is experiencing life in the present and enjoying each and every day. The attitude that I am guilty of having at the Academy, along with many others, is you live for the weekends. The week with a couple practice parades, a Forrestal lecture, and a mandatory basketball game is considered the worst. You try to fast forward through parts of life, like Adam Sandler in the movie “Click” and you count down the days till graduation when you can be free of the restrictions of Bancroft Hall, you can live on your own and then really start enjoying life.

    Here in Oman I’ve been learning to volunteer for as many opportunities as I can. If, at the Academy, I had received a call saying that some random friend of a friend wanted to hang out with me for an entire weekend, not giving me any details of what we’d be doing, I would have declined. Accepting that invitation here, however, I got to go camping in the Wahhiba Desert with a group of 7 Hummers.

    Yesterday, my PF Ahmed called and asked if I’d be interested in going to his college later that day for their open mic presentation day. One of his friends picked me up from the Center and took me to Bayan College, where I got to enjoy three hours of Omani dancing and theatrical performances. Then afterwards, I spent the evening with Ahmed and about ten of his friends at a shisha restaurant shooting the breeze and conversing in Arabic, not returning to my house until about 2am.

    Oman, as a whole, is a relaxed culture; people enjoy life. They may not be as ambitious as the average American, but they’re content. By immersing myself into the culture, I have reminded myself of this valuable lesson: life is more than just living. It’s about giving God your Creator the glory, it’s about loving others, and it’s about exploring and taking advantage of your opportunities.

Life is a journey, not a destination – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” James 4:14b, Bible. 

Some of the kids who like to play in my room on my situp machine (Enaas, Laith, and Emaan)

Me, Ahmed, Joe, and Sayyid

Mahfooth, my driver and a close friend

Visiting the prophet Job's tomb