Wish I could claim credit, but in the immortal words of Shaggy, “It wasn’t me.”

This is just something my mom drilled into us when I was younger, and I still do it to this day

Others have already said to let go about everything being perfect, because there will be things outside of your control that you cannot account for, so I won’t harp on about that.

Instead, I recommend a little pre-trip prep at home to make the end of your trip a dream as well. Take some time to clean the house/apartment, do the dishes and laundry, make the bed.

There is nothing like coming home after a long trip, but coming home to a mess or chores after a (hopefully) amazing time is a terrible way to cap off your vacation, so do yourselves a favor and spend a couple hours on making home perfect before you leave.

$14/hour? Not likely, 20 states are still at the federal minimum of $7.25/hour, and only like 7 are at $14 or higher.

Lump that together with the massive stigma about hiring people who spent time in prison, the shit education and/or training most incarcerated people receive and they’ll be lucky to get two minimum wage jobs to barely squeak by.

The U.S. never abolished slavery, they just gave it a makeover and called it justice.

I’m in a similar boat, Spanish degree from college, but learning Portuguese now, and I’ve found that kids programming like Sesasme Street (Rua Sésamo) is really great for getting some fundamentals. They tend to speak slower, avoid idioms and focus on foundational parts of the language. And the good thing is, you can find all 30ish episodes of Rua Sésamo on YouTube

Edit: Rua Sésamo is European Portuguese, if you want Brazil, then Vila Sésamo is what you’re looking for (or simply Sésamo)

This actually reminds me of an incident in high school.

One of the teachers was younger and pretty cool, and one day we were told there would be a substitute later that week, but the teacher wanted to help us mess with the sub, so instead of Literature class that day, we practiced humming at a super low volume to make the sub question their hearing, gracefully dropping pencils and books at opportune times, etc.

Well the day finally came, and sufficed to say we failed at being discreet and the sub got pretty pissed at us. The scheduled lesson was abandoned, and instead we were told to write a short essay about how we should behave in class and the lessons we should be focused on.

Well it was high school lit, so we were reading some books that had adult themes and things, and some of the kids wrote that we were learning how to identify prostitutes (some character had a different woman visit all the time) or how to murder or whatever.

The next week the teacher was back, and because of our shenanigans and the essay content, we heard that they basically had to fight to keep their job, and damn did we all feel like fucking idiots after that.

I still think about that teacher from time to time. I hope they’re doing ok.

That Tasigur alt literally broke me for a minute. Holy crap is that amazing

I feel this, but I’m coming from a very different angle, having been out of a long term (10 years) relationship for almost a year now, and in therapy for several things since then.

When I find myself ruminating on my ex, wondering what’s she’s doing and/or sabotaging my drive to get out and meet new people, I find that it helps to think about why things ended and what I’ve been able to accomplish and feel good about since the split.

It provides some perspective about who I am as an individual, instead of only thinking of myself in the context of that relationship, and it sounds like you might be similar to me in that you invest heavily in a relationship to the point where that becomes a major part of your self identity, which spiraled into codependency.

I think what might be throwing you for a loop here is that this is sounds like an actual partnership (e.g. you don’t have to initiate everything), rather than a pursuit/job on your part to keep things going, which is unfamiliar territory.

I encourage you to keep working with your therapist on everything, and when you find yourself stuck in that type of thought spiral, take a mental step back and try to find what kicked off that train of thought so you can better manage your reaction to it in the future.

(Sorry if this is rambly/all over the place, on vacation and been drinking)