Lessons I Learned From Working In Greece

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

1. Paradise is not a place you can find.
   I thought living on a Greek Island with my loving boyfriend would be the most blissful three months of my life. It wasn’t. Amidst morning swims in crystal blue waters, sun beds and fun nights out, those three months were unbelievably confronting. I saw so many young tourists come and go, all of them looking for escape, looking for love in superficial experiences, drinking to dangerous degrees.
   Ios was one of the most beautiful islands I had ever seen in my life, yet the lifestyle did not align with me or who I thought myself to be… so I isolated myself and started feeling incredibly lonely.
   Waking up every day to my favourite place on earth was not enough to make me happy because happiness comes from within. By expecting that living in “paradise” would make me happier was essentially placing the responsibility of my happiness onto my environment. Of course it would not work because there are always going to be circumstances, people, or events in our environment that don’t necessarly go along with the images we have created for ourselves.
   Happiness is our own responsibility. Paradise can only be paradise if it comes from within.
2. Fulfilment comes from living a life with meaning and purpose.
   As I said before, Ios was one of the most beautiful places I had ever had the blessing of visiting, let alone live, however there was a key component missing. I didn’t feel like i was contributing anything or growing in anyway while I was there.
   After a few weeks of doing the same waitressing job every day I became extremely bored and resigned. I wasn’t challenged, I wasn’t making a difference in anyone’s lives, I wasn’t do anything that I felt was important. Even though the job was easy, laid back and social, I didn’t enjoy it because the job gave me no sense of purpose.
   Worse was seeing all the full time staff literally work like slaves – 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. No days off even when they were sick. They thought this was the only way they could possibly provide for their families.