Livng in Germany, or Europe for that matter, has been an eye-opening and mind-shaping experience thus far. That was an understatement. During the last 10 months I have learned so much about world views other than my own, the way that mine are viewed by those around me, and began looking at the world I live in through a completely new perspective. In past blogs I've written about my explorations with neuro linguistic programming, existentialism, and of course the ever-present, new-found experiences and interactions with people that cross my path. This alleged mind shaping, I assume, is something that would prove to be quite irrelevant if I wasn't, or hadn't been conscious of it since its onset, and today I attribute it as the cause of the many changes that are taking place in the fluidity that is my life. Radical? Maybe. Liberating? Damn skippy! Then again, it depends on who you ask.
Those of you that have had the asbolute and utter pleasure of meeting me, or better yet, getting to know me here in Europe, :-P know that I refer to my occupation as merely something that I do from 9-5 Monday to Friday. Since my first day in the office, I established with my bosses and the people I work with my reasons for being here, and I told them that while I'm at work, they would have me at work 100%. Conversely, I made it clear that while I'm not at work, I'm 100% not at work. This equation seemed to work perfectly these past 10 months for both myself and my employer, the ever-mighty, ever-intrusive United States Army. However, I've always possessed the notion of the self, and notions of 'greater' institutions...but in my life, they're mutually exclusive. My learnings in existentialism and my education at university on demographics, cultures, and peoples have taught me about my perceived definition about the world, but more importantly I've learned the definition about who I am, the things that I believe in, my values, and my idea of the right and not right. Consequently, I came to the conclusion that the United States military and I are like oil and water, and that what this institution aims to achieve, how it goes about its achievements, and what it represents negates my own values and beliefs.
I am an American, born and bred. I believe in what our Pledge of Allegiance states, "liberty and justice for all." I would be a hipocrite to say otherwise considering my contributions to this country as a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen and as a combat veteran as well. I have served my country both at home through writing to my state's representatives, casting my vote on electoral ballots, and facing my country's enemies on the battle fields of war. It's fair to say that I have done my time. About 3 weeks ago I experienced something that I never had in the 26 years I've been alive. On this particular Friday morning I woke up to an epiphany. In this epiphany I came to the realization, perhaps more of a conviction, that what I am doing with my life right now (professionaly speaking) is leading me to nothing and will create absolutely no fruition for my plans I have in the future. If anything, all it's really doing is jeapordizing them. I woke up, showered, and changed into my uniforn like I do every other morning I prepare to go to work. The difference was that as I sat on my couch, listening to my soothing jazz music by Jaimee Paul, and lacing up my boots, instead of standing up to get going with my day I just sat there and began to think. The clock marking 0700 turned to 0800, then 0830, and before I knew it time had progressed to almost 10 o'clock. There I sat, thinking, contemplating, PLANNING, and waiting. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. I realized I would be in trouble with my supervisors and that at any minute my company First Sergeant would come knocking on my door. But at that exact moment it didn't matter, and I was fine with that.
When someone finally came knocking, it turned out to be my good friend Roy who is in reality my first-line supervisor. I expressed to him my newly-defined desires to extract myself from the Army. By the end of the day, I found myself in a heap of trouble and corrective actions pending to be taken against me, as expected. While this is something that completely goes against the Army's values and is highly punishable under military law, for me it became the catalyst of what I now seek to accomplish: a discharge from the United States military. When all is said and done, it is very likely that all of this will end in what is not the prettiest of situations, and I'm okay with that. Not only do I have a plan to make this happen, I also have several plans about what I am going to do after all of this happens. To me this is the most important thing of it all, considering I am not planning on moving back to the United States anytime soon. I've already filled many of you in on these plans, and I've promised you I would elaborate a little further on what I'm thinking about doing once I'm out.
My options, simply stated, are as follows: move to Brasil and begin pursuing my hospitality career, stay in Europe and begin working on my Masters Degree in hospitality and tourism, or wander (hence the name of this blog) around the world and figure things out through, again, working in the hospitality industry. In regards to the last option, I'm contemplating a move to either Honduras, Croatia, Spain, or Australia. Radical? Maybe. Liberating? Damn Skippy!
I've realized that no man has ever accomplished anything worthwhile without conviction and a true sense of what he wants. I know the things I want and what I want to get out of them, and the only thing in my mind stopping me from getting to them would be myself. I am not an obstacle, I am a provider, and through this I am providing myself with the opportunities to seize the things I want. It's comforting to know that I have easily one of the strongest support nets in my family and that if anything goes wrong I always have that to fall back on, but at the end of the day I'm doing this FOR myself, BY myself. If I so choose to begin my Masters, I plan on doing it through Erasmus Mundus. If I choose to move to Brasil, I am then presented with what may be one of the best opportunities in the world to advance myself professionally in my field with the upcoming Football World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Because of these two month-long events, this nation will be, and is, flourishing with an unprecedented international influence on the hospitality industry, the nation's economy, as well as its infrastructure which I plan to reap every available benefit from. I would be crazy to stay here and 'fight' for something that I have no belief in, and simply stated...waste my time.
It's obvious that none of this will happen overnight, let's be real, but preparation is key and this is only the beginning. Brasil or no Brasil, I have begun teaching myself Portuguese as it is one of my aspirations to begin learning a 5th language. Monetarily speaking, I have a few resources to cap into as well, but saving my pennies and being meager right now is key. I'll have to make some sacrifices. First thing's first though, and I'm going through the motions.
In any case, I'm looking forward to going back home on November 16th and doing something I haven't done since my time in college. In between every semester I would always set a few goals for myself while simultaneously reflecting on the ones I had declared during the prior academic intermission. Being home for 18 days will give me the opportunity to clear my mind, set some new goals, reflect upon the things I have accomplished, but most importantly, carefully and in a calculated manner, prepare myself for A Commencement Apres The Storm , the sequel. Some of the things I simply can not wait to do are to see my beloved family again: my mother, my sister Jaz and my two amazing nephews, and of course all of you, my friends. I'm not sure when I'll have the opportunity to do so again for a good period of time, so I promise to make the best of it.
Accomplishing all of the aforementioned tasks will not be easy, and I'm aware that I have chosen the hard way of doing things. Everything that is going on right now is in a way an eruption waiting to happen, but like freshly molten lava, viscosity always leads to a smooth and fertile surface that in due time leads to new life, exponentially more beautiful than it ever was before. Change only ever happens if we make it happen, and I do not shy away from it, I am not afraid of it. If anything, I welcome it. Here I go.
Those of you that have had the asbolute and utter pleasure of meeting me, or better yet, getting to know me here in Europe, :-P know that I refer to my occupation as merely something that I do from 9-5 Monday to Friday. Since my first day in the office, I established with my bosses and the people I work with my reasons for being here, and I told them that while I'm at work, they would have me at work 100%. Conversely, I made it clear that while I'm not at work, I'm 100% not at work. This equation seemed to work perfectly these past 10 months for both myself and my employer, the ever-mighty, ever-intrusive United States Army. However, I've always possessed the notion of the self, and notions of 'greater' institutions...but in my life, they're mutually exclusive. My learnings in existentialism and my education at university on demographics, cultures, and peoples have taught me about my perceived definition about the world, but more importantly I've learned the definition about who I am, the things that I believe in, my values, and my idea of the right and not right. Consequently, I came to the conclusion that the United States military and I are like oil and water, and that what this institution aims to achieve, how it goes about its achievements, and what it represents negates my own values and beliefs.
I am an American, born and bred. I believe in what our Pledge of Allegiance states, "liberty and justice for all." I would be a hipocrite to say otherwise considering my contributions to this country as a tax-paying, law-abiding citizen and as a combat veteran as well. I have served my country both at home through writing to my state's representatives, casting my vote on electoral ballots, and facing my country's enemies on the battle fields of war. It's fair to say that I have done my time. About 3 weeks ago I experienced something that I never had in the 26 years I've been alive. On this particular Friday morning I woke up to an epiphany. In this epiphany I came to the realization, perhaps more of a conviction, that what I am doing with my life right now (professionaly speaking) is leading me to nothing and will create absolutely no fruition for my plans I have in the future. If anything, all it's really doing is jeapordizing them. I woke up, showered, and changed into my uniforn like I do every other morning I prepare to go to work. The difference was that as I sat on my couch, listening to my soothing jazz music by Jaimee Paul, and lacing up my boots, instead of standing up to get going with my day I just sat there and began to think. The clock marking 0700 turned to 0800, then 0830, and before I knew it time had progressed to almost 10 o'clock. There I sat, thinking, contemplating, PLANNING, and waiting. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. I realized I would be in trouble with my supervisors and that at any minute my company First Sergeant would come knocking on my door. But at that exact moment it didn't matter, and I was fine with that.
When someone finally came knocking, it turned out to be my good friend Roy who is in reality my first-line supervisor. I expressed to him my newly-defined desires to extract myself from the Army. By the end of the day, I found myself in a heap of trouble and corrective actions pending to be taken against me, as expected. While this is something that completely goes against the Army's values and is highly punishable under military law, for me it became the catalyst of what I now seek to accomplish: a discharge from the United States military. When all is said and done, it is very likely that all of this will end in what is not the prettiest of situations, and I'm okay with that. Not only do I have a plan to make this happen, I also have several plans about what I am going to do after all of this happens. To me this is the most important thing of it all, considering I am not planning on moving back to the United States anytime soon. I've already filled many of you in on these plans, and I've promised you I would elaborate a little further on what I'm thinking about doing once I'm out.
My options, simply stated, are as follows: move to Brasil and begin pursuing my hospitality career, stay in Europe and begin working on my Masters Degree in hospitality and tourism, or wander (hence the name of this blog) around the world and figure things out through, again, working in the hospitality industry. In regards to the last option, I'm contemplating a move to either Honduras, Croatia, Spain, or Australia. Radical? Maybe. Liberating? Damn Skippy!
I've realized that no man has ever accomplished anything worthwhile without conviction and a true sense of what he wants. I know the things I want and what I want to get out of them, and the only thing in my mind stopping me from getting to them would be myself. I am not an obstacle, I am a provider, and through this I am providing myself with the opportunities to seize the things I want. It's comforting to know that I have easily one of the strongest support nets in my family and that if anything goes wrong I always have that to fall back on, but at the end of the day I'm doing this FOR myself, BY myself. If I so choose to begin my Masters, I plan on doing it through Erasmus Mundus. If I choose to move to Brasil, I am then presented with what may be one of the best opportunities in the world to advance myself professionally in my field with the upcoming Football World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Because of these two month-long events, this nation will be, and is, flourishing with an unprecedented international influence on the hospitality industry, the nation's economy, as well as its infrastructure which I plan to reap every available benefit from. I would be crazy to stay here and 'fight' for something that I have no belief in, and simply stated...waste my time.
It's obvious that none of this will happen overnight, let's be real, but preparation is key and this is only the beginning. Brasil or no Brasil, I have begun teaching myself Portuguese as it is one of my aspirations to begin learning a 5th language. Monetarily speaking, I have a few resources to cap into as well, but saving my pennies and being meager right now is key. I'll have to make some sacrifices. First thing's first though, and I'm going through the motions.
In any case, I'm looking forward to going back home on November 16th and doing something I haven't done since my time in college. In between every semester I would always set a few goals for myself while simultaneously reflecting on the ones I had declared during the prior academic intermission. Being home for 18 days will give me the opportunity to clear my mind, set some new goals, reflect upon the things I have accomplished, but most importantly, carefully and in a calculated manner, prepare myself for A Commencement Apres The Storm , the sequel. Some of the things I simply can not wait to do are to see my beloved family again: my mother, my sister Jaz and my two amazing nephews, and of course all of you, my friends. I'm not sure when I'll have the opportunity to do so again for a good period of time, so I promise to make the best of it.
Accomplishing all of the aforementioned tasks will not be easy, and I'm aware that I have chosen the hard way of doing things. Everything that is going on right now is in a way an eruption waiting to happen, but like freshly molten lava, viscosity always leads to a smooth and fertile surface that in due time leads to new life, exponentially more beautiful than it ever was before. Change only ever happens if we make it happen, and I do not shy away from it, I am not afraid of it. If anything, I welcome it. Here I go.
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