So I'm currently a 27-year-old American who has been living/teaching abroad since I graduated university (or college, so my friends at home don't rag on me for adapting my lexicon while abroad). I love my time abroad. I've been to 30 countries (so far) and all the adventures that I've shared with people across the globe are priceless. I wouldn't trade a second of it. But now that I am facing 30 - which is daunting for some reason! - I feel like I haven't thought of the future while I've been working. I don't have a nest egg. I'm not ready to start a family. It's kind of set me in a depression.
I'm ready to move forward, though.
And as I look at where I am in life, I realize that maybe my goals weren't where they should be - I am successful. With a bachelor's degree, a CELTA and five/six years' teaching experience, I earned a full-time teaching position with one of the top-rated universities in the UAE. I'm the youngest teacher on campus, and I'd like to think just as respected as my more established colleagues. This was lost on me because all of my close friends at home are successful in the way that they were meant to be successful. They work for Twitter and Goldman Sachs. They are lawyers and actuaries. When I go home, they beg me to stop wasting my time and come back the States to start my "real life".
And I agreed with them.
Until now. Because I am successful, but in my own right. Teaching abroad is a career path, as evidenced by my coworkers, most of whom have lived the better half of their lives abroad. As I read this article today - http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/14646.aspx# - it made me feel better because I don't look back and wish I had told my 22-year-old self to do most of those things. At 22, I already was. And I'm still only 27. I have a ton more time to grow and learn.
As I look to the future, I can't even begin to plan the next 5 years. I honestly haven't the slightest clue of where I'll be living or what job I'll have. Perhaps that is what was so upsetting to me. But now I appreciate that. My life is an adventure that is moving ever forward. Maybe it's not moving toward a certain goal, but at this moment in time, can anyone move toward a specific target? Will the job that I want to have in 10 years even be there in 10 years? Why did I feel so much pressure to chart something basically unmappable? Right now, I'm travelling, teaching, learning and preparing myself for the general direction of where life may take me. And I know that it's going to take me to somewhere amazing.
Now I think that's pretty cool.
I'm ready to move forward, though.
And as I look at where I am in life, I realize that maybe my goals weren't where they should be - I am successful. With a bachelor's degree, a CELTA and five/six years' teaching experience, I earned a full-time teaching position with one of the top-rated universities in the UAE. I'm the youngest teacher on campus, and I'd like to think just as respected as my more established colleagues. This was lost on me because all of my close friends at home are successful in the way that they were meant to be successful. They work for Twitter and Goldman Sachs. They are lawyers and actuaries. When I go home, they beg me to stop wasting my time and come back the States to start my "real life".
And I agreed with them.
Until now. Because I am successful, but in my own right. Teaching abroad is a career path, as evidenced by my coworkers, most of whom have lived the better half of their lives abroad. As I read this article today - http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/14646.aspx# - it made me feel better because I don't look back and wish I had told my 22-year-old self to do most of those things. At 22, I already was. And I'm still only 27. I have a ton more time to grow and learn.
As I look to the future, I can't even begin to plan the next 5 years. I honestly haven't the slightest clue of where I'll be living or what job I'll have. Perhaps that is what was so upsetting to me. But now I appreciate that. My life is an adventure that is moving ever forward. Maybe it's not moving toward a certain goal, but at this moment in time, can anyone move toward a specific target? Will the job that I want to have in 10 years even be there in 10 years? Why did I feel so much pressure to chart something basically unmappable? Right now, I'm travelling, teaching, learning and preparing myself for the general direction of where life may take me. And I know that it's going to take me to somewhere amazing.
Now I think that's pretty cool.
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