In illustrating the spirit of his vibrant surroundings, Ernest Hemmingway once described the “mad, whirling carnival” he saw around him in Spain. As an American studying at Madrid’s IE Business School I will be documenting my experience with this blog, dedicated to that theme.


For friends and family, you can find frequent updates on my life and adventures by checking back here regularly. For anyone else, I hope you find my posts on business school and life in Spain interesting.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

The difference between a rut and a grave

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions.” - Ellen Glasgow

I am by no means in a rut. Maybe this is because of my outlook, or maybe it is because of the incredible people I have met here who have helped support me. Either way I am quite content still after several difficult events.

I will explain:

So far in Spain I have been robbed twice (this is surprising because I have traveled to 35+ countries and never experienced robbery), I sprained my ankle, I broke the screen of my iPhone, I’ve had my passport and hard drive stolen, I broke my iPhone completely, and remain homeless even today.

I was joking with a friend this afternoon about girls. He mentioned that he was hoping to meet some nice girls soon and I mentioned that I was still on the bottom of Maslow’s Pyramid and I couldn’t even think of these things (for those of you who are unfamiliar with Maslow’s Pyramid, basically it categorizes the ‘needs’ we have as humans beings - from the most basic to the most spiritual). For me, still without a permanent home, good physical health, or easy communication, I am still at the bottom of the pyramid of needs.














So am I in a rut? Well, that depends on perspective I guess. Certainly I have experienced a sequence of unfortunate events. However, the difference for me is that for one reason or another I have found myself surrounded by good people, willing to bend over backwards to help me (and buy me the occasional drink, which also helps!).

I suppose in life we will all face hard times. This is inevitable. But whether we choose to let our hard times determine our outlooks, whether we choose to let them determine our fates, I guess this is the difference between a rut and a grave.

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1 comment:

  1. UnknownApril 18, 2010 at 12:40 AM

    You had your things stolen again? For the low level of crime in general (apparently) in Madrid Im stunned by how often people are getting things stolen here.

    Im right with you about the shock of coming here, however - I haven't seen all the challenges that you have but I can't believe what a hassle its been finding housing. I figure we'll get that part all worked out, but it would be nice to be focused on school not finding a place to live.

    It looks like you'll be wandering over to telefonica with me to get a new iPhone? Figures that we are going to miss the 4g iPhone launch by a couple months. I need to get an address first, but then Im going to go pick one up after I apply for the NIE. Let me know if you want to go ...

    (its Anthony in case posting with my google account doesnt clarify that)

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