I have a feeling we're not in Kyrgyzstan anymore
This letter goes to the tune of “Africa” by Toto. Or “Seasons of Love” from the Rent musical.
Sometimes I feel like a homeless person. Here I am sitting at the library, next to the same guy, who’s also here any time I come here. And the other doods that spend their time at the library all day. Thanks for our taxpayer services and providing shelter for us homeless folks.
In my last letter, most excellent reader, I wrote about my time in Kyrgyzstan. I was not sure for how long I would be there but it was for a season. And now that season has ended! Well, it has long past ended. I’ve actually been in the US the entire year! Can you believe that?!
3, 13, 4, 3, 2. < Sing that one to Rent!
What’s it all mean?
3 months, 13 applications, 4 interviews, with 3 different employers, and 2 job offers. How do you measure the time in a year?
I’m feeling pretty good on that one. Yes, I could be humble bragging (wow, do people still even use that term these days?). I never doubted my abilities, so I was really in no rush to get back into the workforce. But why now? Well, essentially, I ran out of money and I was tired of being on the lamb! It took going to the farthest reaches of the world living on a mountain like a shepherd for me to realize that. And now I’m back. Like Backstreet. Alright!
Usually I have more frequent and better updates but the last few months I have been busy churning job applications. That time has finally borne fruit so this is my major update letter. After answering numerous job apps I’ve finally had peace of mind to write unstructured on my own. We’re not in Kyrgyzstan anymore, but could I possibly be heading to Kansas? Maybe, just maybe???
I do see myself as a mercenary, a hired gun, a journeyman. Some might say a prostitute. Sometimes you have to prostitute yourself for work. No! I won’t prostitute myself for work. This is why I haven’t had an employee-employeer relationship with anyone but myself for the last few years. Too much of American culture and identity is tied up in work, and that’s not where my identity lies. The only way to fully break free from that culture was to physically move out of that system, out of the US, to a more carefree place like SEA. Where I became a nomad. A Southeast Asian pirate. And there I lay on the doldrums as I waited for the turbulent storms of the US to die down. Has the tempest calmed down any bit? From five years ago, perhaps, I think, we all know how to handle ourselves better. But it’s still a maelstrom as ever back in the US.
The transition back to “home waters” has been rough. It’s so great to float free and easy at SEA. But you can’t toss me straight back into the churn of the American workforce, which is why I’ve had to sequester myself, conserve my energy, and plot a tack back.
But I didn’t plot this course. It was actually a crazy, rich Asian who offered to buy me a ticket back to the USA. Without that, I’d probably still be eating limes and coconut at SEA, hehe. But now that I am back in the US, how do I ensure a successful transition? The original plan was to sell my property and move back to Asia. But over the course of time, I realized that the real estate market in the US was extremely soft, and so it’d be important for me to have a backup plan. That backup plan was to apply for jobs and make some fast (food) cash as I waited for the house to sell. But the amount of time I spent on those fast food job applications had a low effort to payout ratio. Better to apply for… full-time permanent jobs? Was that the plan? Isn’t that why I left the US in the first place?
“A man’s heart plans, but it is the Lord who establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9.
As it turned out, yes, I did get a few job offers.
Kansas it is! Are you for real dawg? Hey, must be the money! The cost of living in Kansas is as low as Cambodia but the salary is ridiculously high. The cost savings would be ginormous. One year’s worth of work there is equivalent to two years of living in Cambodia. But do I really want to live in Kansas? Nooo. So what would be a more prudent, sustainable option? That is what I have been seeking the whole year! I think it finally came to me in a dream… just like Dorothy! But in the storms of life sometimes you just gotta let go and let God.
In other updates, it was World Book Day the other day. I meant to send out this update then but I’m slowly working on the print edition of my book, Attraversare: The Travels of Life. There will be major format changes from the epub, but if you already have the epub, the paperback will still be the same story. Did you know it typically takes 3-4 months for the formatting of a paperback book? I tried this at the beginning of last year and I was so frustrated. I was getting nowhere. Every change I requested with the typesetter spawned new problems that were worse and worse than the original. So this year, I’ve embarked on my own journey... “Sailing… takes me away to where I’ve always heard it could be. Just a dream and the wind to carry me. Soon I will be free.” I feel like once I finish this paper version of my book my sanity will be restored.
But may the musical lyrics never end!
That’s all I have to say about that.
Ahoy mateys.
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Check out my book: Attraversare: The Travels of Life