Procrastination

(The photo has nothing to do with this post but Chester is cute!)

I'm writing this because I'm feeling scared, uncomfortable, overwhelmed, and am therefore procrastinating.

The translation job with the magazine appears to have come through. I say "appears" because life is very "fluid" here and you can never really tell what will happen next. Which also makes it constantly interesting and exciting. Anyway, Rodrigo got back to me yesterday and sent articles to me late last night. They're still sort of retaining the other translator (who's somehow related by blood or friendship to the managing director) but he's been slow so they need me. Of course, the deadline is this Friday and they want me to translate about 30 articles! So I'm now officially really busy with work. But the pay is very good, especially by Mexican standards. And the experience is invaluable. I almost feel like I should be paying them for the knowledge I'm going to be getting.

Translation is really cool because it's a lot like writing. The articles are already written but it's sort of like writing them again in a style that sounds good in English. I'm nervous because obviously my Spanish is not perfect. But it's actually more important to know English because even if I get the gist wrong, at least it will sound good to the English language reader! Not that I want to get something wrong, which is what makes me nervous. But I just need to put the discomfort aside. And one consolation is that the first issue of the magazine with the other translator had terrible translation that seemed like it was done from a computer program. I guess my fear is that I'll make mistakes and people will comment and I'll be exposed for my incompetence. And I know that there are other people out there that could probably do a better job. But I also need to realize that those people aren't necessarily here and available and sometimes you need to go with what you've got because even if it's not the best, it's good and will get your job done good enough. Hmm, I need to learn this lesson about my own life.

Ok, I'll stop the procrastination.