Mi chiamo...

Buon giorno! Well that is if you are reading this before 4 p.m., if after then, Bueno Sera! Last night was my first lesson in Italian. And as you can already tell, I am picking it up quite nicely - at least the simple stuff anyway.

Along with my husband and friend, I am taking beginning Italian on Thursday nights. What initially started as a way to invigorate my life is quickly becoming the cure all I think I needed. My advisor in college once told us that everyone goes through a "mid-life crisis" every so many years because we need to continually learn and grow. What she meant is that we all need to broaden who we are, which for most means reinventing oneself. However, this wise woman explained to us that it is not in reinventing, but in expanding who we are that fills the void that brings on this "crisis".

For the past several months, I have been having a mid-life crisis of sorts. I hate to refer to it as depression, though that is probably what it is, because I knew that a change needed to be made and that I inevitably controlled what was keeping me out of sorts. Rather than use the blog as my own therapist couch, let's just say that boredom was overtaking my life from my job to my house, even down to mi amore, my husband.

When I read about beginning Italian classes, it hit me like a cartoon light bulb blinking above my head - this is what I needed. I had planned on taking a fitness class, but when looking through the course catalogue of our local arts organization, I knew that I needed not only to rejuvenate my body but my mind, too. Because my husband has an Italian background, I suggested we both take the class. I tried getting him into the Pilates I was also taking, but he wouldn't do that and I actually needed the alone time.

You may think it is too premature for me to think this is the cure all I needed, but the way I feel lets me know that everything is OK for now. I have a hyper personality so it is just a matter of time before I hit that next mid-life crisis. The key is remembering to just open my mind to something new and know that it is up to me to make things better.

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

-- Shakespeare

"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

-- William Jennings Bryan