Saturday, June 18, 2011

Perspectives: Where I was and where I'm going

I actually have a little free time this evening to write (I actually starting writing this post last week) so I decided to respond to my friend Dimitri. He wrote a recent blog post called Perspectives. He asked the question, where were you one, five, ten years ago? Where might we be one, five, ten years from now?

Here is my perspective:

- 10 years ago: I was living in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. I was recently graduated from a technical school program in 3D graphics and electronic game design. I was working as a junior 3D modeler and texture artist at a small game development studio. My job was exciting and stressful at the same time. I enjoyed many aspects of it, but was longing for travel and a life filled with a little more adventure. I was contemplating some sort of big change. I was searching websites and investigating the option of getting a tech job overseas, maybe Ireland.

- 5 years ago: I was living and working in Busan, South Korea as a teacher at a large school chain called CDI. I had a wonderful girlfriend who I met in Busan, but wasn’t Korean. She was a Japanese woman from Osaka. We were pretty serious and talking about a future together. I had also been accepted into a teacher education program at the University of Ottawa in Canada. I was looking forward to starting there the following year.

- 1 year ago: I had finished school in Canada and was a full-fledged teacher. I was starting my third year at a school in Kobe, Japan where I was living. The Japanese woman I was dating in Korea was now my wife and we were just weeks away from expecting our first child. Life was interesting and about to get more interesting!


- Today: I still live in Kobe, Japan with my wife and a cute little son who is about to turn one! I still work at the same school teaching children and have learned a lot about fatherhood. Like all new parents, my life has completely changed. I also have a new passion. I have combined running with charity and spend the time I used to on You Tube video blogging, on raising awareness and trying to raise funds for Save the Children Japan. I also plan to branch out and do even more charity work.


- 1 year later: Not sure about that. I may be preparing for my return to Canada. My teaching career in Canada is calling me. I could possibly be in the midst of moving and relocation preparations. Then again, maybe not!

- 5 years later: I will be living in Canada with my family. We will be living in our first house and my son will enjoy running around in the backyard. I will be using my teaching talents and abilities to help young learners in my own country and working hard to run and help various charitable organizations. I will also be preparing to head to the Sahara Desert in Morrocco to run the Marathon des Sables for the first time!

- 10 years later: I will be taking a leave of absence from my teaching job back home to spend a couple of years working at a large international school in Japan again. My children will be enrolled in the public school system here for a few years to help them improve their Japanese and get in touch with their Japanese culture!


You can follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good stuff, Kevin!

Didn't know you were a fellow Maritimer like moi.

Samurai Running said...

Yes, nice to make future preparations just hope the specter of prostate cancer or being hacked to death while asleep doesn't spoil your plans ;)!

Actually the above is more likely me in ten years! I'm sure you'll have better things coming Kevin.

Wonderful thing is, most times even the best you can imagine for yourself is often worse than it ends up being!

Unknown said...

Many thanks for your reply to my blog post.
I hope you will be able to run the marathon des sables. It must be an amazing experience!

Esper Ranger said...

Nice to see that you may come back to Japan for a while. I plan to move back someday too... once I'm rich.

Anonymous said...

Oh Kevin, you're cute. :)

Kurt said...

Your perspectives are very interesting. Such a curious roads we all do travel. -Kurt :-)

gaijinwife said...

Interesting to read about other people's plans and outcomes. Hope the next ten years goes according to plan and that you get that house with the yard for kids to run round in and your chance to run in the marathon des sables.