The Seat Is Taken

June is my favorite month of the year. It lays just past the border edge of summer that May ushers in while not being as extreme as August. The world always looks its best in June.

And, like always, I utterly squander it away.

A brief review of history:

2003: Stuck in Kansas doing who knows what. I don’t remember? Do you? I didn’t think so.
2004: Freakin’ Dr. Kimzey’s Economic 201 class during Spring Semester. ‘Nuff said.
2005: Economic Development with Dr. Hanes. More students use four letter words to describe this class than any other.
2006: Just had quit my first post-college job and went camping in the Ozarks. For a week. Not a total loss, but seizing only 1 out of 4 weeks is still a failing grade.
2007: Springfield Freakin’ Missouri. A sense of limbo gives way to stagnation. Work is work, nothing particularly meaningful. Nothing really eye catching in the local scene either. Housemate drama out the wazoo.

So, like every past June that I can remember, I get into an overly introspective mood that compels me to go into overdrive to salvage what’s left of the summer.

Last year’s solution was a month in Utah. The year before that was Yellowstone.

One of these years — before I’m locked into some forsaken career — I’m going to have a solid three months of summer planned.

The main culprit for this year’s wasted time is the stagnation that’s slowly worked its way into my system after returning from Asia. Despite my conscious efforts to prevent it from happening.

It has been a really slow two months.

FSWE isn’t until next month at the earliest. Grad school applications are seemingly frozen in the barren wastelands of central California. And like I mentioned before, housemate-related drama has really been off the chart’s lately.

My hands are tied, so I’ve made the best of things. Lined up enough work to get by (got really luck this time around), go to Institute and other activities when rides are available. And yes, I even tag along with the housemates when they bother to actually do something.

It’s not a a great life, but it’s comfortable. And that’s the problem.

I have a nasty habit of getting by and being comfortable. The more I look at things, the less I like being comfortable. Nothing ever interesting or meaningful happens when I’m comfortable.

Comfortable to me means being complacent.

It’s time for a shake-up. Instead of going west as I usually do, this time I’m going east. Far east.

Baring an act of God, I’ll be leaving the good old US of A by the end of summer for China. That’s right, remember all those “lowly” English Teachers I made fun of back in the day? That’s going to be me — I’m going to be broke and poor and I’m going to learn to love it or die trying.

Why? Primarily to learn some Mandarin and see the country that’s going to economically rival our own country in 15-20 years. Those are my main goals.

Both the experience and the language skills will enhance my resume greatly. When it comes time for me to sell my soul to a career it’ll fetch a higher price, especially if I wind up at the State Department.

(Of course there’s always ulterior motives. Wonderful things, those ulterior motives are.)

And so now the race to plan, save and make this new plan a reality begins.

Ready, set, go.

June 27th, 2007 in Journal |