A Life Lived in Transition

I suppose you could say that I first moved out of my parents’ house the day after I graduated high school.  Of course, I’ve had many stints of living with my parents off and on since then, but   that was really the first time I began to inch my way out into what we call The Real World.  I moved out that summer to go work at my life-long favorite summer camp, SpringHill.  I remember being incredibly excited on the drive up there because one of my dreams was finally being fulfilled.  And then, on one of those first nights up there, I sobbed and called my parents.  At the time, I was confused because there I was, doing what I had wanted to do since I was 10 years old, feeling overwhelmingly sad.  Looking back now, I know I cried because I wouldn’t ever live at home the same way I did before.  Home would always be a place I could come back to, but never a place where I would permanently reside.  The weight of that realization sort of broke me that night.

True enough, I haven’t ever really lived at one location for more than a year since then.  Sure, college was in the same city, but each year was with new roommates in a new location.  Add that to studying abroad and lots of random summer jobs and I’m now on my 11^th residence since graduating high school

I’ve come to love all these new locations and new experiences that come with them.  Every residence always has a unique set of memories and people attached to them.  There was the summer with the Zoo Crew at HillCrest, where we screamed Frank Turner and played Smash Bros every night.  Or there was the year in Germany, with (more) screaming of Hallelujah and drinking whiskey in Dana’s apartment.  And now there’s Korea (sadly not as much screaming) where I get to spend my time playing frisbee or gaming at the PC Bang with friends.  It’s a fantastic time!

...for now…

The bittersweet thing about these experiences are their transitory nature.  With each new residence come new, often intense relationships.  I get to know people so incredibly well for a period of time, only to rarely (if ever) see them again.  It’s great and it sucks, all at the same time.  Sometimes I feel as if nothing in my life is constant (apart from friends and family back in Michigan).   

Indeed, it is a life lived in transition.

And yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Creation vs Consumption

Greetings Folks!  It’s been awhile, but don’t worry things are still going swimmingly over here.

Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately is how I’m choosing to spend my time during this period of my life.  Coming to Korea has distanced me far enough from most of my daily concerns back in the States.  It has also given me plenty of solitude to reflect on my life and the direction I want it to go in, something I am quite grateful for.

Specifically, I’ve realized just how lucky I am right now in terms of my obligations.  Apart from showing up to work and doing my job for 8 hours each day, I have no obligations.  No kids, no homework, no nothing!  This obviously isn’t necessary unique to English teachers in Korea, although being here seems to make me notice it more.  Nonetheless, I think it’s important to realize how much time each of us has to ourselves to truly do what we want to do.

And If step one is realizing how much free time we have in our lives right now, step two is utilizing that time.

I always try to be conscious of how much time I spend each day simply consuming things other people have created vs creating/learning things.  Mindless consumption of things certainly brings an immediate sense of enjoyment, but nothing more after that.  In contrast, I’ve found that spending my free time reading or studying Korean generally isn’t that enjoyable in the moment, but it does bring a much deeper sense of fulfillment in my life.

I often wonder what it would look like if I represented a typical day of mine with a pie chart.  How much of that pie would be consumption vs creation?  I always hope I create more than I consume, but I’m not sure how often that’s the case.