Well, it’s finally happened. I’ve finally completed the accounting certificate program I started three years ago before I left the States. Add to that the fact that my classes for the year are finished (we’re doing nothing but self-study sessions prior to the final exams next week, and there’s no way I’m attempting anything other than showing a movie after exams are done) and, well, let me allow the Stone Roses – cough, er, ah, I mean the Soup Dragons to sum it up for you…
Despite the lack of a parade, bronze statue, banquet in my honor or other momentous event to celebrate my completion of the certificate program (I can’t even attend the graduation ceremony, since it’ll be next June in LA and I’ll be here then) it still feels like a pretty significant achievement. It seems strange now to think back to that moment in late 2008 when I was a copiously moustachioed (long story) temporary mailroom clerk at a music publisher in LA, watching the world economy fall down around me, and coming to the realization that, as an adult over 30 without a decent job still struggling to cover basic expenses in a highly competitive job market with over $50,000 in student loan debt and mounting credit card balances, maybe it was time for a fairly radical career change. I didn’t exactly picture myself right here, right now back then – I’m not sure what I was foreseeing back then exactly, other than a tiny light at the end of an otherwise rapidly dimming tunnel. The process wasn’t easy – at times before I left the States to do this job I was doing production work six days a week, thirteen hours a day and trying to complete all my coursework on my one day off. (Whenever conservative, “54 percenter” types get on their high horses and say things like, “Why don’t these lazy unemployed people get jobs?” or, “Why don’t these whiny liberal arts majors go back to school?” I really want to shake one of them by the shoulders and say, “Why don’t YOU try actually doing that some time, and find out how easy it is?!?”) Now here I am three years later, sitting at a desk in Korea
As welcome as the change from intermittent freelance work to a full-time job has been, at times it’s felt like I’ve been working sixteen-hour days, five or six days a week for the past two years. The amount of study required for my certificate program has varied wildly from quarter to quarter as different courses had much different workloads. My first year here I was even trying to complete a TEFL certificate and take Korean classes one day a week while I was studying, working and trying to maintain a modest home. So this sudden realization (more in the accounting sense than the mental sense in this case) that I suddenly have very little to do at work and much less to do at home has been kind of a shock to the system for me, like taking a fish out of dirty pond water and suddenly putting it into a clean new fish tank. I honestly have no idea what to do with myself, to some extent. I’ve been growing pretty tired of playing the handful of video games that I own. A friend of mine has been trying to get me to join some online games with him, but I’m concerned that I don’t really have the motivation to become competent enough at a game to play it in a competitive environment. I’ve been too lazy to go back to the local video store since the “Haeundae” incident of earlier this year, and since watching DVDs on my TV involves moving my laptop to the floor and rerouting some cables I’m often too lazy to carry through with the effort. (I know, that doesn’t sound like a lot of toil and trouble, but think about it – when do you want to watch TV the most? Exactly – when you have absolutely no desire to put any sort of effort into entertaining yourself.) I’m genuinely trying to make an effort to read books, but, you know, they’re books. Snore. Plus books have to be bought or downloaded and I hate reading off the computer at my desk. (Please keep in mind while reading this that this is a recounting of my attempts to relax, and as such gross sloth is not only acceptable, but also a key element of the pursuit.) It’s getting too cold to go outside and hike. I’ve been exercising every day at my school’s fitness room, but that only kills an hour or so every night. I’ve been considering buying a guitar but I want to wait until I come back from vacation this winter to see what my finances are like before I invest in one. The stuff on TV is in Korean and the people outside are talking the same gibberish for some reason. So in the meantime I’m at somewhat of a loss for how to fill my waking hours in the evening. Mind you, I just completed my coursework yesterday, so this is still a rather new problem. I’m sure I’ll have it figured out in a few days or a week. Either that or I’ll finally figure out how it is that people can actually bring themselves to sleep for eight hours a night. (It seems like such a waste of time to get more than six or seven. I mean over a lifetime, that’s like… [fumbles with calculator] 57,816 excess hours lost to somnambulance? Unacceptable.)
Vacation planning has occupied some of my time at school. Now that I’m going back through the guidebook I bought for my trip to Malaysia
Christmas is coming. Christmas in Korea is weird because Korea Korea Korea
Meh, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll probably touch base again some time after I arrive in Kuala Lumpur for vacation, or perhaps after I get back to Korea
(Postscript: I was going to include a link to the White Stripes video for "Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself," but that turned out to just be Kate Moss dancing in her underwear, and that seemed kind of sexist. So I'm including this video instead:)
(Other Postscript: Hey, Eastbound and Down, Season 2 is available on iTunes now! My problems are solved!)
Clearly, you need to take up knitting.
ReplyDelete