go with the flow

the other weekend i was invited to go to a party with a friend. at first i was so excited because the past few weekends i've been very busy... but then i remembered that everyone will be dutch. and everyone will be speaking dutch. and then there's me. so after picturing scenarios of how it would be in my head, i was almost set on just not going, but i talked to my dutch parents (i like calling my host parents my dutch parents instead) and my dutch dad had a very good point. he said that about 80 percent of the stress we have about certain situations and about just life in general is made by ourselves. we think something is going to happen which then makes us uneasy, but we have no idea that whatever we thought of will happen - so we are making ourselves feel this added on stress and anxiety for really no reason at all. so i went to the party, and ya know what?! i had the best time :) everyone was very kind and welcoming and just about everyone spoke english. so everything my mind was thinking would happen, never did. if i ended up letting what i thought would happen keep me from going to the party, i would've missed out on an unforgettable night. and even if my premature ideas of how the party would play out did happen, then i'd deal with it then and there. there's no reason to worry about something that hasn't even happened yet. it's as silly as wearing a bib when you eat because you think you're going to spill on yourself. you (i) just need to go with the flow and take life as it comes.

so... the moral of my story is, don't do it. don't make assumptions of situations. not only do they stress you out, but they might just keep you from doing something totally fun and exciting :)