#aungierdanger

[the-kingslayers-whore]

I have never liked filled doughnuts but hands down this doughnut is my favorite thing I have eaten while here. It's a oreo glaze with marshmallow filling. #doughnutaddict #aungierdanger (at Dublin, Ireland)

[dublinymca]

Gym for your brain, by Eva

Yes, I have a gym within a 30 seconds reach from my room, but that is not the one I am visiting the most, lately. Currently, I am putting my brain to exercise new muscles and forgotten muscles. Since the Christmas Tree Sale started, I am learning on the go a bunch of things that either are new, like having difficult conversations in English on the phone, to solve a problem for example, or consciously unlearn years ago. For anybody working in an office, shop, bar...managing a till and making the balance for the money is just another task, I assume not particularly difficult. 

But for me is part of my Nemesis world, a journey to my very own hell: Mathematics in general and figures in particular. I went for Humanities & Arts Baccalaureate as soon as the educational system allowed me to, after years of torture in the Math classroom, and never regretted the decision after embracing a career in communication and journalism, far from my natural enemies. So when I told my parents  I was going to be involved in budget controlling, their reaction was quite revealing: I was worried about being actually able to not mess up every number while doing the sums, and I thought they were going to call YMCA Dublin straight away alerting that other person should do that instead of me, for the sake of the fundraiser, but they told me (with that wisdom only your parents have) “Eva, is time to learn”. That remembered me a few things I already knew but that needed refreshment:

Self -confidence fuels your acts more than intelligence or skills

Having a inner motivation turns the impossible into possible

Prejudices about ourselves should be confronted with reality quite often to not stay in a wrong comfort zone

Why do I say that? I just realized that maybe, when I was a 15 year old day-dreaming about living in New York as a writer or a filmmaker in my loft in Williamsburgh I had no reason at all to learn Mathematics. And that maybe, what happened to me with Maths was more related with motivation that with a real lack of capacity in my brain, as I had become to believe. And with that wrong thought, that I was not capable of doing anything number-related, I have lived till now. But now I have a motivation! I really want to help this organization hit all the profit possible so I actually enjoy facing figures every morning and see how they increase, because they mean opportunities to young people. They are not just exercises about useless trains departing at the same time from Madrid or Barcelona or bloody apples stolen in a shop. So I would like to encourage anyone to give a second try to the things that they fear or dislike, because as we change and grow up, we can confront old problems with new resources.

And then we are more free from our own limits...

On a lighter note, we are doing our best to stick to healthy living, but sometimes a volunteer has to do what a volunteer has to do...Pizza Legends! (Does pineapple in a pizza count as one of your five a day? And the tiny slice of banana at the top of my Aungier Danger donut?).