Thursday, January 26, 2012

Live Free or Die Hard


As we were walking around Rhodes today on our way to lunch I caught myself thinking about how I really never want to leave this place. Deciding to go on a J-term trip was very easy for me. I have always been one to take impromptu trips, I love learning about new cultures and learning to live a little freer.  I think that living free is not only taking adventures but also attempting to learn how others choose to live freely.

The first day we arrived in Rhodes, Lauren and I, went to a little pizzeria. Paulo and Pina, two Italians who speak no Greek or English immediately greeted us. They immediately took us through their family history and told us about their daughter Anita who was on vacation. I immediately felt like I was apart of their family and I have had lunch there everyday since then. Paulo and Pina choose to up and pack up everything to start a little hole in the wall restaurant with their daughter in Greece, this is how they chose to live freely.

Lauren and I decided that we should thank Paulo and Pina for their kindness by giving them a card and a printed photo of all of us (above). When we found a Kodak Express we were greeted by one of the sweetest men I have ever met. He gave us our prints for free and proceeded to tell his about how is three children went to college in the U.S. I saw that he choose to live his life freely through the success and the hard work of his children. He told us that to live freely sometimes you have to ask advice and the best people to ask it from are your parents. (I love you mom).  I had never though about how you could live freely through someone else, but now I know that it is possible.

As professor always says “it is better to ask for permission rather than forgiveness”. I believe that’s what the Kodak man was trying to relay. Sometimes you need a little encouragement when live gets hard to remind you that wrong path can lead you down the road of dying hard.

Whether starting your own family restaurant, traveling to new places or living vicariously through your children everyone has the choice to live freely their own way.

S’agapo,
Alex 

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