端の始め (The Beginning of the End)
Historically even numbered years have always been good to me, so I predict 2012 will be great.
Call up Ms. Cleo. She's got some competition.
If I were to sit down and make a list called "The Top 5 Years In My Life Thus Far", 2012 would totally be on it. It was one of those rare years were nothing horrendously bad happened, and when shit did sort of hit the fan, I still came out smelling like pomegranates. Second car dies? No problem, here's a bike! Bike gets stolen? No problem, here's another one! Lost passport and can't take a flight? No problem, here's another ticket. The only bad thing that happened this year was the mass departure of the majority of people I liked in Okinawa, starting with Kelly and Mike in January, Dana a few months later, long time JETs like Sarra and Lisa when the summer rolled around, and fellow blogger/researchern\, Mitzi, near the end of the year. That, I suppose, was inevitable, though. Very few people wind up staying forever. But losing your friends on a regular basis never gets any easier no matter how long I stay here.
In between all the work that I do, I plan on getting back into rapping more, spending time with people again, and doing things that I've yet to do here.
One word to describe my 2012 would be "work". Actually that's a noun...can you describe things with nouns? Anyway, work was a hyooge part of my life this year after going unemployed for the better part of 2011. I spent so much time with my co-workers that you'd actually think my real home was at my office in Shintoshin. It didn't really give me time to rap more, but I did manage to get into some other things in between slaving at my desk and punishing my liver with as much free booze as possible: biking! And while riding bikes all day long doesn't give you the same kind of love and attention that a rap career would, at least I don't have to worry about random Twitter beefin'.
I got to have a memorable birthday celebration with my birthday twin, Rebekha, in which she proceeded to whip my ass at a watermelon eating contest (thank God...not trying to live up to stereotypes here)...
...and braved an incoming typhoon in order to have another party with my co-workers. It was the best birthday day I'd ever had.
But the two major highlights of my life this year were finally getting promoted to be leader of my department, and going back home to the the US for the first time in four years. The promotion is a major deal because 1) I'm the first foreigner to ever work at the company and 2) I'm the only foreigner in a leadership position. It's also the first time I've ever held a leadership position in my professional career. There's a lot of challenges that go along with the job, including the language barrier and managing so many different personalities on my team, but on the bright side all this experience should help me transition into the types of jobs I hope to get back in the US.
Speaking of going home...well...you probably already read about it and shared it with all your friends, right?!. It was an awesome experience and was just what the doctor ordered. It convinced me that I need to come back from Okinawa as soon as possible.
Next year I will be a whopping 30 years old. My time on the island has flown by entirely too fast. It seems like just yesterday when I met Kim and got scolded for wearing a naked girl T-shirt, ate nankotsu thinking it was fried shrimp, and drank my first Orion. It's been a really great four years, possibly the best four years of my life, but going back to DC made me realize how much I actually miss the place, my family, and my friends. It also reminded me that there's more out there to seize and experience. Okinawan life is great, but it's also easy. The only challenge for me comes with the language, but even that can be worked around with the help of friends and/or an understanding of non verbal communication. Otherwise I know exactly what I'll be doing on any given day. In my case that generally means waking up at 7am, catching the bus into the office, writing a bunch of crap, and leaving around 8pm five days a week. Saturday is always time to teach English. There's no real variation in that pattern, and I could do it until I'm a million because none of my jobs will ever fire me unless I go buckwild with the rule breaking or something. And when I'm not at work, the main thing to do is go out with friends to an izakaya. Like I said, I love that stuff, but there's clearly more out there for me. And on top of all that, I'm really starting to think about marriage, kids, and all that shit. With the wages the way they are in Okinawa, I can't really see myself getting married and raising a family out here.
And so, this will be my final year in Okinawa. Time to make the most of it.