During my time in Argentina, I feel like I live three lives. To start, there is my life as a volunteer and temporary resident in Argentina. With this life, there are daily obligations and a helpful routine to my day.  Then there is life as a traveler and guest which adds variety and a wonderful amount of chaos.  And then there are work obligations back home.  Despite being on an unpaid leave of absence, managing a busy office means consistent time with staff and administration.  And beyond my work obligations, I enjoy keeping up with my professional contacts in my field of international education everywhere I travel.  Of course, I have not mentioned the time I want to spend keeping up with friends and family during my time abroad – or managing my life back home.

I must admit (as any good  Gemini would), I love the variety and uncertainty of my life here; however, I fear my lack of focus and organization means I don’t do such a good job keeping up with any of my lives.  And this challenge doesn’t end with my return home.  We all manage obligations and personal ambitions in our daily lives.

So volunteers and world travelers, how do you manage your time to keep the focus on what you want to accomplish?  When do you know you’ve hit the right balance?

Mia Scavone is currently a volunteer with Fundacion AFOS in Córdoba, Argentina. You can find more of her posts here.

For some reason, I imagined a packed classroom with students chattering nervously about wanting to study in the United States. Maybe I just caught them on an off day, or it could be that there are so many test dates offered in Buenos Aires that there’s no need for packed rooms, even in a city of this size. What needs to be said about the exam is simple enough: it sucked and I’m glad it’s over. So now that the awful monkey on my back has finally jumped to a new branch, I can focus on other things. I’m looking to get into more writing, and just recently a co-worker asked me to help with English lessons. I’m actually surprised it took this long for someone to ask.

Though I really wasn’t keen on teaching again, I actually look forward to giving some lessons in my spare time, if for nothing else than to chat it up with a co-worker some more. These lessons would obviously be pro bono, which is volunteering in some form or another. So just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. But the sky is blue and it’s nearly summer. I’ll smile and short of a karate chop to the GRE prep book I used, this day couldn’t get much better.