This last year has been a rough but livable one and I suppose what doesn’t kill me really will make me stronger.

This year I survived a near death experience in the form of a motorcycle crash…a very nasty wreck indeed.

I watched my job crumble around me as my team got transferred away to other departments and my supervisor left the company.

These are minor things that in the end aren’t going to be the end of the world or my existence but I will admit though that the bike wreck almost ended me.
My last days at work at the end of the year were kind of a drag and I started to feel like there was something I needed to do to turn things around.
I have been working towards getting a new job that would take me overseas for a while because I think that part of my life’s change in course has to do with becoming debt free.  An overseas job could really help pay the bills off.  I know that money isn’t everything but when you have bills lingering in the shadows with an obligation to pay them off you tend to do something about that when you have any sense of decent rearing about you.  Bankruptcy just isn’t a viable option.

The crumbling job market and mine in particular doesn’t surprise me.  The need for workers in my field of practice are becoming less and less as we as a nation continue to outsource our jobs and erase the need for skilled people.  Corporations posted record earnings just one year before as they extracted more cash out of people who couldn’t afford it and are now jobless.  I see a reasonable option as one where I can take on work as some others do and send the money back home while I am working where the need still exists.  I also hope that if this pans out and works, when I return home, the economy might have some signs of improvement.

Another push for me to consider the move is that recently there were tolls imparted on the main road that enables me to get to where the good jobs are.  It’s not to say that it’s the only way but there is already talk of tolling the alternate routes in an effort to “Keep traffic congestion at a minimum.”  This new toll and no actual road improvement will take me about $600 dollars and 60 hours a month to get to where the higher paying jobs are.  Thanks alot WSDOT it just costs more to get around the state with no improvements….awesome!
I think that this state will become a place I used to live if things don’t improve.

These things considered…I hope that an improvement in proximity to work, better pay and fewer bills will enable me to enjoy life a little more and not find myself a slave to them.  If this new adventure catches on and I actually do it I think my outlook will improve.

Interesting question isn’t it?  Not who are you or how are you but “What do you do?” 
It’s often a question that car salesman will ask you in an effort to sum up what price range of car they can sell you or sometimes the opposite sex and mostly women will ask that same question in an effort to sum up what you are worth monetarily.  Don’t deny it ladies, some of you do this and we know it.  It’s no surprise and definitely not a secret.  I had a close friend who was engaged to a young lady that was overheard speaking about my friend with these words.  “He will be worth something someday”.  When confronted, she said I mean to his employers.

 It’s cuts right to the quick and is often used to determine a person’s value in a manner that we can quantify.  While a person’s worth in life should not be tied to a dollar figure or a monetary value it happens all to often.  I think we miss out on opportunities to connect with people when we use the “What do you do” question with the intent of figuring out how much a person earns or is worth. 

This same question is applied to those around us when we look at the outward appearance of someone and see indications of what they do without ever getting to know them or even ask the question “What do you do?”.  We pass judgment and make decisions on if we will even interact with because of the monetary value we assume they hold.  Sometimes people get caught up in applying a bit too much self worth and looking down thier nose at someone who merely looks as if they have less monetary value backing them up.  I worked in the business district of the nearby big city.  I have on a few occasions worn a warm field jacket to work along with my bluejeans and sneakers…because I can.  There have been a few times when I have been crossing the street or walking down the sidewalk dressed in this manner and come face to face with people dressed in nicer more expensive clothing and they acted as if I was supposed to give them the right of way when clearly that wasn’t the case.  I’m sure that to them, I looked like someone that if they were to ask me “What do you do?” I might answer with, “I work in the mailroom”…but I don’t.  

Just remember that before you make a determination about a person and who they are you don’t get caught up in the monetary value of a person as the deciding factor on your level of responsiveness to them. 

More to come on this later.

– C.R.