Found in Translation

Today I finished my first translation piece!

A brief background of how I got into the translating business:
For those who do not know I am trilingual. My family is originally from Brazil and we moved to the United States when I was 2 1/2 years old so I was raised learning English at school and speaking Portuguese at home. In high school I took 4 years of Spanish which allowed me to add a 3rd language to my resume! In college I majored in psychology, a field that I am passionate about. Fast forward to this summer, a friend of mine who is a Brazilian psychologist had an idea of starting a website in English. With my degree in psychology and fluency in Portuguese she felt that I would be perfect to work with her on this project. Yesterday she sent me my first task and today I completed it! It was exciting and very enjoyable.

I really liked translating, it was mentally stimulating, like exercise for my brain! I am seriously considering doing this more. I did a little bit of research on it and it's common for people to do it part time. The only thing is that I would need to brush up on my Spanish since there's a higher demand for that over Portuguese. I scored a 5 out of 5 on the Spanish AP and received 13 hours of foreign language credit so I didn't need to take any foreign language for my degrees so it has been awhile since I've fully put my Spanish to work. I think a brush up would be very beneficial and worth it. =)

The project itself is also very exciting. I got in contact with an acquaintance of mine who is a web developer and he is currently in the process of creating the site. The topic is unbelievably interesting and something that my friend, Ludmila, is passionate and knowledgable about. I am so glad to be a part of it and I look forward to giving more details on the project as it develops and eventually sharing the site when it is finished.

-Natalia

Amazingly Awesome Advice

*Picture I took of the elevator buttons at an old hotel I was staying at in New Orleans*

A friend of mine on my Facebook posted a link to this article:

"On Perfect Timing: When Things Aren’t Happening Fast Enough"
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/on-perfect-timingwhen-things-arent-happening-fast-enough/

Pretty much it's about being patient and enjoying the moment instead of worrying about the future or time not moving fast enough which is exactly how I've been feeling for the last 2 years of my life. I didn't graduate college in 4 years (it was 6), I didn't have a job when I got out (still don't), I'm not in grad school, I still live with my parents, and I haven't traveled as much as I would have liked. Before I was in college I expected that by age 24 I would be in graduate school preparing for the career of my dreams. I've never had any expectations about marriage or children because I've always felt that that is something which I have little control over, something that I never felt I could ever really plan until I was in the right moment to consider it. My career, however, and other aspects of my life I thought I at least had moderate control over.

As much as it's said I don't believe people actually grasp the concept that their lives are not (and never will be) fully in there control. People who are happy with their lives aren't content because things just fell in their laps, they're happy because they took advantages of the opportunities they were surrounded by. Yes, some people have it easier than others but they still had to do something in order to arrive at their happy place. It's like that old joke where the person prays constantly to a deity asking to win the lottery. When they ask why their prayers for instant, work-free wealth aren't answered, the deity replies, "You need to buy a lottery ticket."

The "Perfect Timing..." article isn't something new, I've heard/read that type of advice before but it had been awhile and I really needed it now more than ever. Reading it was like a brief second of meditation and enlightenment. I feel less frustrated and more motivated.

My current prayers are to be more fit, learn more, read more books, and graduate school. My lottery tickets are exercising,working with a friend on a website, picking up my unread books, and studying for the GRE.

-Natalia

P.S.
I've been listening to Arcade Fire's new album "Suburbs" while writing and thinking about this blog. I felt it fit in great with how I was feeling. It's a great album for those into indie rock and only $3.99 on Amazon.com's digital downloads section! =D