Culture Shock = Compounding Interest of Emotions

I'm not very good at math, and I don't really know anything about economics. (I can hear my dad snort in laugher and say, "understatement.") But here's something that I do know.

Basic math tells me that 1 + 1 = 2.

Simple interest tells me that 1 + 1 x interest = more than 2 (eventually).

Compound interest tells that 1 + 1 + interest x interest= more than 2 + interest on the interest (eventually).

Basic logic tells me that as that interest on the interest starts to grow, things start multiplying rapidly.

So when I learned this, I learned that I want compound interest. It's where you get the most whatever you're trying to get.

Well, my emotions have been out-of-whack lately, and I'm pretty sure it's a open/shut case of culture shock. I was thinking about my emotions today, when I realized that culture shock puts the compound interest principle to work, but not producing the most of what I'm trying to get. Let me give you an example.

If I was in America, and feeling kind of (insert whatever emotion here), and I saw a bug in my house, (insert frustration/fear of bugs/whatever emotion here), I would have two emotions.

1 + 1 = 2.

But say the bug problem doesn't go away, and I have to keep killing bugs. The continual and increasing amount of that emotion equates to simple interest, so that I begin to feel stressed, which is more than just the original two emotions.

1 + 1 x interest = more than 2 (eventually).

I may not have been stressed over the original one bug. But the bug x interest produces much more than just 2 emotions. And if it is actual bugs we're talking about in this case, a woman with 1 emotion already + bugs x interest = stress (and probably an unhappy husband calling an exterminator).

Now let's put this example into the context overseas.

Let's say I am feeling kind of (insert whatever emotion here) and I saw a bug in my house, I thus feel (insert frustration/fear of bugs/whatever emotion here). The reason it doesn't equal two emotions is because of compound emotion. Every single emotion is not just building on other ones, but picking up steam from the other ones, and making the increase multiply rapidly.

So when I'm already feeling frustrated from the carpentry shop and the sardook, and am just longing for a little bit of peace and quiet and rest, and I open my Bible to find all of that, only to suddenly see a large cockroach crawling on the wall just above my shoulder, I don't feel the normal emotion that cockroaches bring about in the states. Instead, I feel that emotion plus compounding interest of emotions.

So I leave my house to get a break from the carpentry shop and the sardook and the cockroaches, and walk through the heat that drains any semblance of energy that I once had, avoid being killed by insane drivers, and the compound interest of emotions just keeps multiplying. I get to language class and work on short vowels and the mathematics of my emotional state begin to soar past calculable amounts.

Here, I have (insert any number) of emotions (1+1+etc) + stress from everything about life overseas (interest x interest) = culture shock (rapid multiplication of emotions).

I am usually not irrational about killing a bug. Or about being drained by the heat. Or language learning. But when I'm already feeling a little emotional about whatever, cockroaches during my quiet time can quickly send me over the edge. As can short vowels. And almost being hit by insane drivers. You name it. Insert whatever here. Whatever you inserted, it adds up to me beyond description.

I THINK, if I had money in a compounding interest bank account that was working at the rate of my emotions during culture shock, I'd be one wealthy woman.