It's Down to Two Choices
Events here have forced me into making a decision.
My room mate will be moving back to New Mexico early next year. So that means if I haven't left here by then I will be leaving too. I have my choices narrowed down to two: Seattle or Cambodia. And even if I go back to Cambodia, when I do come back to the States it WILL be Seattle. Why those two places?
Well, I'm saving money right now and it occurred to me that I could live on ten thousand dollars for six months or more in Cambodia and I should have way more than that saved if I wait until Carolyn leaves in Feb or March. That means I could go to Cambodia and not have to worry about getting a job right away. Which means I could chill for a while, for a few months even, slow down my pace and try to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. And this sounds really, really weird to me: the first time I asked myself what I would do if I had a few months on my hands and I didn't have to worry about finding a job for a while, one of the first things that popped into my head was, "Well I'd like to write about this, and I'd like to write about that."
Now where did that come from? All of my life I've had people berate me for not writing more. They say I have a natural talent and I've been wasting it. Yeah well, I never really liked the act of writing before. I would write mostly when I felt I had something to say, something I just had to get off my chest. It always felt good to have written something, but the act of sitting down at a keyboard and writing, yuck, that was the last thing I wanted to do. But suddenly that is all changing. When I picture myself in Cambodia, with enough of a financial cushion that I don't have to worry about working for a while, I can see myself sitting next to the pool, writing on my laptop. Just writing about so many things that I want to write about now, but just don't have the time because I'm so caught up in the rat race, or life in the United States. It's crazy the way we push ourselves here and I just don't want to do it anymore. I turn 50 in Feb and I want to start spending my time the way I want to spend it, not pursuing the elusive "American Dream".
So if I don't leave here until late winter, or early spring, I might have enough money saved up that I could live on for an entire year in Cambodia. But of course at some point I would find a job teaching or maybe even start a business, which is a hell of a lot easier to do over there than it is here. I know that after a decompression period I would get bored and I'd have to find something to do. So most likely I would teach. Maybe I could even start my own blog about my experiences teaching English in Cambodia.
And even if I decide to go overseas again, when I do come back I want to head to Seattle. Why Seattle? Well, I have friends there, I've worked there before, and Seattle is probably the most progressive city in this country. They just legalized marijuana and voted in a $15 an hour minimum wage. What's not to like about that? They even have a kick ass football team.
So at some point I will live in Seattle. It could be as early as next spring, but then again I might leave the country, but when I do decide to come back to the States that is where I want to be.
And this time I think I will stick to one of those two plans. I actually gave this a lot of thought before I wrote about it and posted it publicly.
My room mate will be moving back to New Mexico early next year. So that means if I haven't left here by then I will be leaving too. I have my choices narrowed down to two: Seattle or Cambodia. And even if I go back to Cambodia, when I do come back to the States it WILL be Seattle. Why those two places?
Well, I'm saving money right now and it occurred to me that I could live on ten thousand dollars for six months or more in Cambodia and I should have way more than that saved if I wait until Carolyn leaves in Feb or March. That means I could go to Cambodia and not have to worry about getting a job right away. Which means I could chill for a while, for a few months even, slow down my pace and try to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. And this sounds really, really weird to me: the first time I asked myself what I would do if I had a few months on my hands and I didn't have to worry about finding a job for a while, one of the first things that popped into my head was, "Well I'd like to write about this, and I'd like to write about that."
Now where did that come from? All of my life I've had people berate me for not writing more. They say I have a natural talent and I've been wasting it. Yeah well, I never really liked the act of writing before. I would write mostly when I felt I had something to say, something I just had to get off my chest. It always felt good to have written something, but the act of sitting down at a keyboard and writing, yuck, that was the last thing I wanted to do. But suddenly that is all changing. When I picture myself in Cambodia, with enough of a financial cushion that I don't have to worry about working for a while, I can see myself sitting next to the pool, writing on my laptop. Just writing about so many things that I want to write about now, but just don't have the time because I'm so caught up in the rat race, or life in the United States. It's crazy the way we push ourselves here and I just don't want to do it anymore. I turn 50 in Feb and I want to start spending my time the way I want to spend it, not pursuing the elusive "American Dream".
So if I don't leave here until late winter, or early spring, I might have enough money saved up that I could live on for an entire year in Cambodia. But of course at some point I would find a job teaching or maybe even start a business, which is a hell of a lot easier to do over there than it is here. I know that after a decompression period I would get bored and I'd have to find something to do. So most likely I would teach. Maybe I could even start my own blog about my experiences teaching English in Cambodia.
And even if I decide to go overseas again, when I do come back I want to head to Seattle. Why Seattle? Well, I have friends there, I've worked there before, and Seattle is probably the most progressive city in this country. They just legalized marijuana and voted in a $15 an hour minimum wage. What's not to like about that? They even have a kick ass football team.
So at some point I will live in Seattle. It could be as early as next spring, but then again I might leave the country, but when I do decide to come back to the States that is where I want to be.
And this time I think I will stick to one of those two plans. I actually gave this a lot of thought before I wrote about it and posted it publicly.