I believe that if you want to grow as a person, you must do a couple of different things. One is to reflect. Reflect on your life, on your actions...decide what works and move on, find what doesn't work and change it.Second, I believe that you have to step out of your comfort zone. This past fall, I became friends with a man from Macedonia, Tane Spasev. We connected on Twitter, then on Facebook and he being a basketball coach, we had a common thing we liked. He is quite fluent in English having attended college in the United States. During one of our conversations, he asked if I had ever been to Europe...I haven't been out of the United States.
So, I was invited to work a camp in Zlatibor, Serbia which is southwest of the capital Belgrade. Since then, I have been asked to work at another camp for their Junior program in Macedonia. That camp will take place at Lake Ohrid, Macedonia. I readily accepted and have grown to know Coach Spasev and Coach Borce Ilievski both of Macedonia (Coach Borce is a pro coach in Iceland and coached former South Central star Craig Schoen...what a small world).
Stepping out of my comfort zone...I have never flown in a plane...EVER!!! Now I will fly from Louisville to New York, New York to Frankfurt, Germany, Frankfurt to Belgrade...then back again after two weeks. I am forty years old and have never flown and now my first flights will be halfway around the world.
I will be entering countries in which English is not the native language. I am nervous because I have heard horror stories about the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. That it isn't English friendly, that the people aren't apt to help Americans and on and on and on. In its defense, I have also heard that there will be no problems.
I will end up in Serbia which wasn't exactly an ally of the United States in the mid 90's and earlier this decade. To remove the Serbs from Kosovo and allow U.N. peacekeepers in, the U.N. (mostly the United States and Germany) bombed the Serbian military. From all accounts, there will be no problems with me being there this summer...at all.
I will be around people who will not speak English first which will be the first time I have ever been around this type of situation.
After visiting the International Clinic for foreign travelers, I have been put on alert to what types of "diseases" I can get. Such as "traveler's diarrhea" which I have already been given a prescription to fight off if I get at anytime during my stay. The water is not bad for them in that area as they are used to it, however, I am not and have been told to not drink the water and to close my eyes and mouth during showers.
The worst part of being out of my comfort zone is not being around my family for two weeks. I am going to miss my kids and wife terribly during this time. We will use skype to communicate, but with the six hour difference, it will be hard to find time when we are all capable of being free. I am not so sure that seeing them rarely during those two weeks may not make it worse when I leave. Watching them cry and missing me, hopefully, will be painful...very painful.
But, with all of the above said, we/I must step out of the comfort zone. I can stay in Sellersburg/Henryville my whole life and live a good life, but would it be great? Yes, there is the chance that I could die on this trip, but that could happen every time I get behing the wheel of my car.
I will write about my experiences in Eastern Europe, I may even blog from there, but I will be going this summer, Lord willing, and hopefully will come back a better coach, person, and father.
