Offskis

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The day after Valentine's Day, rather fittingly, marked the day of my departure from the tedium of suburban life and the career ladder. Not that I hadn't enjoyed my first taste of being a worker drone. After the monotony of studying for 4 1/2 years I welcomed the chance to just be a cog in the machine, mainly just because a 9-5 schedule can actually give you a greater feeling of freedom than one where a deadline is always looming. The only real problem with my cog was that it wasn't big enough. And whatever it was connected to, way far away in my future, wouldn't be quite as impressive as I'd hoped. So after sticking it out for the mandatory year I decided to jump ship. Well I shouldn't say I jumped. I wasn't pushed, but something definitely compelled me to cannonball off that ship. I suppose the most significant realization was that even after only one year in the workforce, I was already on a long, slow uphill climb to senior management… but that climb would take 40 years and involve about 4 pay grades.
It’s not that I felt entitled to more, it’s just that I knew there were greater opportunities out there and that I was willing to go looking for them. As I remarked several times, over a few particularly frustrating months at work, there really isn’t any one definitive place to find out what opportunities are available to you. That goes for work, play, travel, everything. So if that’s the case, I thought, maybe it’s best to just go somewhere your odds are highest and take your best shot in the dark.
I shouldn’t say that I came here blind. I had possible interviews set-up, and a decent prospect for work, but it would have been easy not to come, for fear of losing a sure thing. But the only thing I was really sure of by the end of 2005 was that I needed a change. Optimism, blind luck and some help from family and friends would have play equal parts in making something worthwhile out of a shot in the dark. But I knew I’d have a damn good time failing, it that was the outcome.
And so I got my local friends together for a couple of parting beers (thanks to everyone who came out), booked a ticket and made tracks. And the results so far? Well, I’m still here.

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Photos

Flying Out
Adios to the folks!