Meditations 1

Richie is sitting here at the computer at the reception desk at the hostel at which he works. He is meditating and musing over various things.

He thinks of his mood swings. He reflects on his thoughts two weeks ago and how he wanted to leave because all of his new friends were leaving. Now he has made new friends again, and some of these friends are staying longer. This makes him want to stay longer. He could stay until February but he also wants to go home for an extended family Christmas. This is his problem.

Richie also thinks about how quickly people fade from his mind when he only knows them for a short period of time. It is an odd reality to him. He can connect with people on a basic level and become friends with them rapidly, but if he only knows them for a short period when they leave after only a couple of weeks he has moved on. Of course, he is sad when they initially leave, but he is also able to adapt to the new situation he finds himself in and make new friends and focus on new people. Richie supposes that maybe it is a good thing that he only misses people for a short time because it might be very painful for him if he missed them for longer periods. On the other hand, for those people he has known longer, he usually lives in the confidence that he will be around them some time in the future so he does not miss them so much.

For Richie, things at the hostel have become fairly regular. Since his stay is so short, however, the routine will not be steady for so very long. If he prolongs his stay then the routine will of course be prolonged as well. He is used to checking people in, listening to broken English, trying to communicate with people that speak a different language than he does, and having a lot of free time to simply hang out with other staff members and visit the hot spots of Amsterdam. Since the new volunteers arrived, there has been a much greater interest in getting out of the house and into the city and seeing what can be seen. Richie is glad about this because he no longer needs to explore alone. Additionally, Richie has had the beginning of some new and good friendships with two Americans, Seth and Matt, from North Carolina, and some Dutch friends Ellen and Eline, and some other people. All are friendly, it is easy to talk and relate to them.

Of course, some days are better than others for Richie. Sometimes Richie has trouble handling all the people that pass through reception with patience. He does not always make sure the tone of his voice is light and cheerful. Sometimes it slips into more gruff tones. Additionally, since the people seem to always arrive at the same time, when Richie has to check in loads of people at once, he can become irritated with the change from solitude to loads of people. He, however, adapts and does his best.

Richie also ponders his future. Currently he is leaning toward life in Seattle rather than moving back to southern California. He may just try to get some of his friends who currently reside there to move up to where he is when the time comes.

Today is a good day. Richie got his first tip from two older women from the US. How nice.