Elizabeth Randall
August 18, 2014
The Happiness
Project
HW #2: Reaction
Paper
Eat,
Pray, Love: Ch.19-36
I’ve
come realize two very important things about myself from reading these few
chapters of Eat, Pray, Love. The first realization came from The 20th
Bead, in which Liz talks about needing to make friends in Italy and ended with
a very nice assortment. From the two Elizabeth’s in Rome (which by the way my
name is way too popular… lol), to Giovanni and his twin Dario, to Sofie (the
beautiful Swedish “milkmaid”... another lol), to Maria and Giulio (the “savage”
couple as Giulio says), as well as Luca Spaghetti (hahaha Mr. Spaghetti the
Italian “artist” tax accountant). The second realization came while reading The
23rd Bead; when Liz, Luca, and his friends go to a soccer game in
Rome. When their team (Lazio) lost they decided to go out for a little
pick-me-up, but instead of heading to a bar they went to a bakery (which is
actually very common for Italians after a game). J
I’ve
been thinking a lot about the topic of friends and the meaning of friendship
and what it means to me. I’m sure you all know that this has always been
somewhat of a challenge for me, as I have never really had long-lasting
friendships of my own. Which is really surprising considering I’m a very
friendly, nice, and personable person. So I wondered, was it me? Have I learned
to be so closed off and in my own world that it makes it so difficult to make
friends or keep friendships going? Or am I just too lazy? All of this could be
true about me. Throughout most of my school life the friends I’ve made were
simply just to get me through school unscathed. It was mostly a survival thing
I did to not get picked on too much by my peers. Then I joined a sorority in
college and for a brief moment I had more girlfriends than I could have ever
imagined. But now that I’ve moved to California I’m again faced with the task
of how to make friends especially in a place where I barely know anyone and is
so spread out. I find myself in these positions often in my life and I cant
help but wonder ‘Why’?
Then
last night as I was talking to Shawn about what I was reading and while on the
topic of friendship he said something really amazing to me in which I never
really thought of before. He basically said to me, “Well from what you’re
telling me it sounds like your family are your best friends. I mean anyone can have
a wide ‘assortment’ of friends, but very rarely does a person have just a few
truly meaningful friendships especially when it comes to having that with family
members.” Shawn was absolutely right; I only need a handful of amazing
friendships and I’m glad that most of them are my family members. This little
fact gives me a lot of comfort even more so than food.
It’s
amazing what people will do for comfort when they need it. Take me for example;
at first while reading The 23rd Bead I thought to myself, “Wow
Italy’s so awesome, a pick-me-up is yummy pastries at a bakery rather than
drunken stupidity at a bar. I love Italy too!” But then I realized I already do
what the Italians do as a pick-me-up, except for me that may not be a good
thing. Because food (especially junk food) has always been my bad habit,
especially when I’m feeling down. Ever since I was young I remember snacking
always made me feel better, but now that I’m older and don’t quite have the
same metabolism as I once did comfort eating has now become somewhat of a
problem or a challenge. So now Shawn and I are actively trying to eat smarter,
by consciously not buying junk food but instead going to the farmers market to
buy healthy food like fruits and veggies for daily juicing & snacks. But to
be honest at times it can be really hard to stay away from snacks, so Shawn and
I came up with a wonderful idea. When we recently went to a rodeo (which as you
know most events usually have a plethora of junk food around), we decided to get
popcorn as our little junk food reward for eating so healthy lately. But
instead of doing what we usually do which is scarf down the whole bag, we
decided to share half the bag with a little kid so we wouldn’t eat as much. It
felt really good not only because we were eating less but also that we made
some kid really happy by sharing our popcorn. J
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