the manxome foe
I am once more facing down the Terrible Beast of What Do You Want to Do With Your Life. Only this time it's looming a little more convincingly than usual, since my tenure on the JET Programme is coming to a close once and for all. My possible avenues of escape:
1.) go to school in England for publishing, use as a springboard for getting a job there (original plan, still has appeal)
2.) find a job in Japan, preferably one that doesn't involve teaching (love Japan, sick of unmotivated students)
3.) find a job in America (in publishing, for some kind of international company, in an organization promoting culture, etc)
And now thanks to my father I have come up with another one:
4.) spend one year hardcore studying Japanese in an intensive language school (leading to a further branching of possibilities; could I become good enough to be a translator? Given that I do not naturally posess any talent in learning foreign languages . . .)
Which just goes to show how asking for advice can complicate your life. Thanks to my grandmother I have enough funds to continue my education without putting myself in the hole, but this does not mean I have any right to squander it (my little sister still needs to be put through school, and my other sister is expecting a baby. I would like to help them out the way my grandmother helped me, since said grandmother died before either my little sister or my new niece could benefit from her largess. That, and someday I'm going to have to buy a house. The books need a place to live).
The future is a scary place. And more than that, I hate deciding. Choosing one thing means not choosing all the rest, and that I can hardly bear. And yet I must also worry that the passing of time will close off yet more pathways, and what if I choose one and then change my mind?
What if I don't?
EDIT: Of course there is always another possibility: hike into the Himalayas and join a monastary. Unfortunately this necessitates acquiring a taste for yak butter tea, which is a significantly deterring prerequisite.
1.) go to school in England for publishing, use as a springboard for getting a job there (original plan, still has appeal)
2.) find a job in Japan, preferably one that doesn't involve teaching (love Japan, sick of unmotivated students)
3.) find a job in America (in publishing, for some kind of international company, in an organization promoting culture, etc)
And now thanks to my father I have come up with another one:
4.) spend one year hardcore studying Japanese in an intensive language school (leading to a further branching of possibilities; could I become good enough to be a translator? Given that I do not naturally posess any talent in learning foreign languages . . .)
Which just goes to show how asking for advice can complicate your life. Thanks to my grandmother I have enough funds to continue my education without putting myself in the hole, but this does not mean I have any right to squander it (my little sister still needs to be put through school, and my other sister is expecting a baby. I would like to help them out the way my grandmother helped me, since said grandmother died before either my little sister or my new niece could benefit from her largess. That, and someday I'm going to have to buy a house. The books need a place to live).
The future is a scary place. And more than that, I hate deciding. Choosing one thing means not choosing all the rest, and that I can hardly bear. And yet I must also worry that the passing of time will close off yet more pathways, and what if I choose one and then change my mind?
What if I don't?
EDIT: Of course there is always another possibility: hike into the Himalayas and join a monastary. Unfortunately this necessitates acquiring a taste for yak butter tea, which is a significantly deterring prerequisite.