Is this stress that I'm feeling?

I am in a management position at my current summer gig. Shocking I know! I have moved up in the world. The strangest thing was happening in my first few weeks and occasionally it still occurs. I get this ache in my head. I rarely get headaches and when I do it’s usually from dehydration and this wasn’t the case. This was strange and very unusual. I noticed on my days off it would just lift away.
I found myself in between eight 20 year old girls who I needed to manage and who were giving me the worst attitudes ever(what has happened to the younger generation?!) and the owners of the business who were holding it over my head if the girls messed up. There it was the throbbing in my head when suddenly I realized what it was, this unfamiliar feeling....it was stress!! This is what everyone has been talking about! It was the fear of failure, the pressure from above, the complaining from below and never seeming to satisfy anyone. Why do people sign up for this every day, doesn’t it create wrinkles? I swear it must age you.

I skipped out on this world of stress for a while. There were times in my many jobs abroad that I was worried, there were mistakes and problems but in the big scheme of things everything was going to be O.K. Meanwhile people back home have this favourite saying, “I’m so stressed.” “It was such a stressful day at work.” It’s like they are trying to compete with each other on who is more stressed, I would just think, does it really matter? Things will all just work out.

My biggest issues were, where in the world was I going to work next to keep moving on (Still kind of is). Once I am traveling I have to decide, am I going to read in my hammock or on the beach? Do I leave here or stay a few more days? Do I stay in a hostel or couch surf? I am usually on my own so these arguments happen inside my own mad little head. Rice and beans or rice and beans?

A life as a traveler does keep you young, at heart and physically young. Although I believe the two go hand and hand if you allow yourself to enjoy life like a child there will be less stress and worry in your life. In the end everything shows on your face. My father never had a stitch of grey hair until I left for a year and a half to travel on my own.

Expensive beauty products are not going to save you, no matter what the Israeli at the Dead Sea booth in the mall says. Instead get out there build sand castles on the beach, throw a Frisbee and run around with a goofy smile on your face. I remember when I lived on Little Corn Island, Nicaragua for a month. A girl from Sweden and her English boyfriend made a treasure hunt for the rest of us staying at the camp. They hid clues all over the tiny island in coconuts. When we got close to the end one read, “beware of pirates”, they jumped out from hiding with fire crackers and pretended to attack. Our reward was a fresh coconut. As the sun was setting the English guy ran into the water yelling, “The last one in is a poo!”

This was last year; we were all in our late 20’s.