I've been making ads at the Washington City Paper for two and a half years now, and I'm tired of it. I've been doing more or less the same thing for the same money since I started, I'm way underpaid, and I'm really not very enthusiastic about furthering my career as a graphic designer. I just feel strongly that I should be doing something else with my life, but I'm not much closer to knowing what that should be than I was when I graduated from college seven years ago. I'm still looking for the same sort of work that I'm doing at the paper, for better pay (I could make almost twice as much), but if it's a job I won't really look forward to each day, am I wasting my time?
Some facts:
• I don't have much going for myself in DC (no job I especially like, no friends I've
really connected with, no love life, no money to spend on things that are important to me, i.e., no life at all, really).
• I'd like to travel more.
• I'd like to learn some foreign languages, especially Spanish.
• I'd like to have lots of new experiences and put myself in a situation where I'm forced to be more interactive.
• I haven't experienced any significant personal, intellectual or creative growth since college, because I've been going through life as a drifter with no real ambition or means of trying new things that interest me. I feel isolated from people in social situations, because I don't feel like I have much to offer. All of this has depressed me immensely.
So now I'm considering teaching English abroad for a year, maybe Argentina since I'd like to learn Spanish and Argentina is supposed to be a pretty happening city. I know that this is generally something people do immediately after college or when they want to take time off from college, but my own situation is really not much different from someone fresh out of school, so what do I have to lose? Maybe I'd discover something about myself I didn't know or overcome some doubts. And hopefully, I could even save some money, something I've hardly been able to do thus far.
Who's done this, and how did you like it? I know Kaycee has. Does this sound like a good idea for an aimless, 30-year-old man? Do you know some good resources? Words of caution?
brianbibbly [email] said at 4:05 PM 08-01-2006: You know Brad, the glass half full view of this post is at least you've taken a good look at where you are, personally, and know what you have to work with. Most people really aren't that honest with themselves. I've never taught abroad, but it doesn't sound like too bad a gig. I mean, if you are looking to jumpstart your life, a total immersion into something absolutely new doesn't sound like a bad idea, regardless of age. I say go for it. If it sucks, well, it will still be better than doing nothing at all!
josh [email] said at 4:08 PM 08-01-2006: also, your skill set, even if you aren't psyched about the work, is way better now than 2 years ago... don't look on your time at the paper as a total waste or anything.... but it does seem like a good time to move on
josh [email] said at 4:05 PM 08-01-2006: my friend jesse is doing this and he is probably not much younger than you...
this honestly sounds like a lot of fun! i could see you enjoying it a lot, you love to travel.. and i'm sure you'd meet people very different from those you interactive with normally.
if i were to do this, i'd pick a place with very easy access to lots of other countries, for maximum experiencosity
josh [email] said at 6:07 PM 08-01-2006: brad has met jesse, though, through me. so me saying "my friend jesse" was intended to possibly stir brad's memory of meeting him... so if he sees him out in dc, perhaps he will be like "oh hey i met you with josh, can you tell me about teaching english abroad"
pokey [email] said at 4:06 PM 08-01-2006: My brother in law, sister, and a few friends have all gone abroad to teach. The only negative I have heard is that they feel isolated or lonely, but they all seem glad they did it.
ed [email] said at 4:16 PM 08-01-2006: My friend Nikki is a teacher in Prague, and loves it. And she travels all over Europe in her off time (although she's here in the US for the summer break).
myriam [email] said at 4:21 PM 08-01-2006: I think this is an excellent idea! Also, consider the Peace Corps--they provide language training, too, and teaching requires, well, teaching. You may not enjoy teaching--it's really kind of... well, it can seriously suck, if you're not into it. The Peace Corps, and other programs like those run by USAid, etc have all kinds of diverse jobs availabe, so you might consider something like that.
Also, I would like to recommend extremely highly the book River Town, written by Peter Hessler (I believe he is a contributor for the New Yorker? Can't remember now.) Anyway, he won a Pulitzer and his writing is wonderful. The book is about his experiences in the Peace Corps, which he joined around age 32 I believe essentially because his life was stagnating and he didn't know what he wanted to do. They placed him teaching English in a "small" town in China, on the part of the Yangtze that was destined for drowning in the Dam project--his years there were the final years of much of the town's existence, and his study of it is fascinating. For most of his time there, he and his Peace Corps partner (they send you always in twos, and you have a regional coordinator and contact with all the other volunteers in your region) were the only two caucasians in a town of 800,000 Chinese. The book is absolutely fascinating and gives a very realistic and interesting glimpse of the Peace Corps. If you are at all considering going abroad to teach or something you should seriously get the book this afternoon and get to readin'.
dave [email] said at 4:22 PM 08-01-2006: i dunno, if having problems fitting in and connecting with people is part of your concern then I'd avoid teaching English. You'll be in a country where you can't readily communicate with people, talk about leading to even more isolation.
You might consider something along the lines of peace-corp type work. Something that would involve a group of people you can work with.
kara [email] said at 4:39 PM 08-01-2006: I disagree with your first paragraph, based on what I've heard from other people.
Isolation can be the result of sticking too close to the familiar.
brandonA [email] said at 6:20 PM 08-01-2006: I disagree. I am hugely socially phobic, but have always found talking to people whose english is not so good to be much easier. I think it's because irrational anxiety over looking like a moron is suppressed when you're too busy trying to communicate on a basic level.
kate [email] said at 8:55 PM 08-01-2006: I totally understand, but it's the running away concept that i don't like. Brad...what do you want to do, really. To me, leaving for a year, then coming back broke is the worst idea.
myriam [email] said at 8:57 PM 08-01-2006: But that's silly. He might be coming back broke in money, but is money everything Kate? Consider all the other riches you gain when you throw yourself out of your comfort zone for a year. What is he running away from? Boredom? Anyway sometimes you even need to put some distance on problems just to understand them better... and sometimes you need to put some distance on yourself in order to understand YOU better.
myriam [email] said at 9:02 PM 08-01-2006: I mean yeah there are definitely downsides to everything but it sounds like brokeness is the least of his priorities right now.
brad [email] said at 12:03 AM 08-02-2006: Yes, exactly. And as Josh pointed out further down, I really couldn't be any more broke coming back home than I am now. Jobless, most likely, but I shouldn't even think about that now. Much of my progress in life has been stunted because too often I've asked myself the question, "What if?" when I should have been saying, "Hell yeah!"
ed [email] said at 10:20 AM 08-02-2006: My abovementioned friend makes enough money to live comfortably, take numerous vacations/trips, and is saving money to possibly try a South American country once her contract is up in Prague.
myriam [email] said at 10:34 AM 08-02-2006: Yeah actually except in Japan I haven't heard of my english-teaching acquaintances suffering for money. The kid I knew who did it in Japan had enough money to live and travel a bit but wasn't exactly flush. The Peace Corps volunteers I know were all in 3rd World countries and their salaries, while pittances on our terms, were supposedly generous comparitively. And my mom knows a lady who teaches English to US state dept. kids in Germany and is ROLLING in it. (But that requires like, a teaching degree etc.)
kate [email] said at 9:04 PM 08-01-2006: and you know what else, i am going to get in trouble for saying that. i tend to roll my eyes whenever i find out that people have taught english abroad and i think it's probably stupid that i do, because they usually are people that go "find themselves." or are lazy. this is the time in our lives where you have to kick some serious ass in your job to excel.
brad, stop fucking around and figure out what you want to do. you can do anything you want! I swear to god, it's true. if there is anything i have figured out, it's that! ME, stupid me, silly me, has a dream job. and you know how? i said that i don't care how much i make, i wasn't going to live my life and hate my job at the same time. i could never do that again. i was cutting my wrists doing that, and seeing psychologists. i have turned that hate and misery around to never feel that way again.
i hate to see someone that i like in that same empty space. take that horrible feeling and sit down and just think...what do i want, because i only live once. it can be mine. not like a power thing. a step by step thing. and brad...happinessssssss. i swear to god, i have never been happy in my whole life until now. never ever ever. and you know what else? it GROWS! it's so weird. and you know what else? i just got a raise dude! fucking crazy.
do NOT sell yourself and your creative mind short. you know what you want to do. you think about it all the time.
myriam [email] said at 10:44 PM 08-01-2006: I don't think you're a freak. Don't worry. I think you are speaking from your experience, which is the best thing to do when giving advice. I'm sure Brad will appreciate your viewpoint. I said wow because it surprised me.
pokey [email] said at 1:44 AM 08-02-2006: I am thinking my dream job might be making cakes, but I am too afraid of not having good prescription coverage to start doing anything new, now.
kara [email] said at 9:19 AM 08-02-2006: yeah this is another thing. And the main thing I hate about our country.
So the question is this:
if you don't currently need health insurance, should you enjoy the freedom while it lasts, or should you worry about a possible emergency?
Personally, I wish I had enjoyed freedom more back when I was "healthy."
pokey [email] said at 12:20 AM 08-04-2006: I wish I had used my time finding out what I REALLY wanted to do for the rest of my life, and then getting high enough up the totempole to get decent insurance before being diagnosed with a chronic illness. Instead, I got myself a $3k a month drug habit, and hardly a clue about what I would do for a living, if I wasn't totally terrified of starting from scratch.
So plan B is doing something I alternately marginally enjoy/hate until I die or win the powerball. I am pretty much just a nihilist/hedonist, so a life wasted in such a way sits with me pretty well.
brandon [email] said at 10:11 AM 08-04-2006: Health insurance is a good bet. I was lucky. I went without through my 20s, and then, the first year that I have health insurance, it's already paid for itself 3 fold in emergency services and other stuff. And dental, dental is always a good thing.
kate [email] said at 5:30 PM 08-02-2006: Seriously Josh, this surprises me. You are one of the most motivated people I know. I remember when we were sitting at The Chimes once and you had your list of goals you wanted to achieve and I was so astounded because I thought I couldn't even complete an entire book.
Sure, everyone is different, but life is too fucking short to think that one cannot have what they want.
kate [email] said at 5:35 PM 08-02-2006: i realize after writing this, that this kind of doesn't make sense. obviously everyone has brad's best interest at heart, which is sweet.
josh [email] said at 5:36 PM 08-02-2006: Just because I (or you) am motivated, and know what i want to achieve in life, that means everyone is the same?
I'm not selling brad short - and, indeed, i wasn't limiting my comments to brad.
Not everyone knows what their "dream job" would be. Period. If you think everyone does do, you're plainly wrong. Sometimes people do have to find themselves, or stumble onto their calling. (And, I'm sure, many people never do, for various reasons.)
josh [email] said at 5:38 PM 08-02-2006: also, i don't think brad is unmotivated... i think he hasn't found a career that really grabs him yet. i'm fairly certain that brad would agree with this.
myriam [email] said at 8:58 PM 08-02-2006: I would actually say that in my experience this is far more common than the opposite for people. (That they DON'T know what they want rather than that they DO.) Also, too few people travel.
josh [email] said at 10:38 AM 08-03-2006: i agree with you but was trying to work with kate a bit on this... i figured if i could get her to realize SOME people don't know what they want in life, then maybe she would realize that most people don't.
brad [email] said at 11:51 PM 08-01-2006: Yes, there is one thing I've done that's given me a lot of pleasure and elation. It's knowing what's required of me to do it professionally that overwhelms and discourages me, because I know my limitations, and doing it will mean overcoming those limitations. It almost doesn't seem possible, and that's what kills me. But if there's nothing else I can see myself doing passionately and successfully, I guess I don't have a choice if I want to be happy. Yes, if I could wake up and do this one thing every day, it would bring much so much joy that any problems in my life unrelated to it would be petty in comparison.
However, if I ultimately decide on this career, spending a year abroad to teach English will not hurt me – trust me. In fact, I can see how doing so would help tremendously, because this career requires that I'm good with people and have a thick skin. Teaching a classroom full of students, some of who might be disagreeable, could be good training.
brandonA [email] said at 3:47 AM 08-02-2006: if that's the career path, then the place to teach is eastern europe or maybe thailand. plenty of desperate ladies in crushing poverty want to be in your movie...
myriam [email] said at 9:06 PM 08-02-2006: i tend to roll my eyes whenever i find out that people have taught english abroad and i think it's probably stupid that i do, because they usually are people that go "find themselves." or are lazy. this is the time in our lives where you have to kick some serious ass in your job to excel.
I'm sorry, I tried my hardest not to respond to this forever, because I think you should feel free to express your own experience, which as I said is always useful to others.
But it's a day later and this still bugs me. I don't want to jump on you, I honestly want to make you think. I'm glad you shared your opinion because it shows me a different way of seeing the world, but I'm going to press you on it a bit to see why you think what you do.
Do you honestly think that moving your whole life abroad to teach and share your language and culture which an entirely different set of people is lazy?! Do you honestly think that there is something wrong with people trying to find themselves by shaking themselves out of their routine?
A question for you: you had to shake yourself out of your routine at your parents' house to pursue your dreams, right? Is there something wrong with people who do that by going to another country, instead of another state? You tell Brad later to sit and think about what he really wants to do, deep down. This is great advice. We should all do that about lots of things in life. But... isn't that... "finding himself"? How is that different? How is that process not valid if leaves home to do it? Also, why put pressure on him to have to "kick ass in his job" right now when he's telling us he doesn't want to do it? There is NEVER a "time in your life" when you should feel pressured to perform amazingly at a job that isn't right for you and you dislike.
brandon [email] said at 7:30 PM 08-01-2006: Avoid the peace corps, low compensation, and, if you don't have good, marketable skills, you run the risk of ending up in some really awful places doing boring work or just passed over - not to mention infighting and political snarkiness. Email Kayce or Deanna about teaching abroad. An acquaintance taught for a year in Japan, also, for decent compensation - equivalent to a decent office job here, and he was able to save a lot, and he picked up pretty good Japanese skills. Another guy I know makes a really good living teaching English to rich French students in Paris - no French necessary.
If you choose to start a fight club, don't put out fliers.
milky [email] said at 9:41 PM 08-01-2006: Good luck, Brad. I wish you the best, but I think whatever you choose to do...you'll adapt to it and probably like it. Bibbs is right...you're honest with yourself, you know your strengths and weaknesses. I'd take that and run with it. Honestly, I think you'd do fine overseas...espcially as you're a thin American with politeness. French gals would prolly be layin' a f...hey hey kids!!!
Go have some fun, Brad. You sound like you need and more importantly, deserve it.
brad [email] said at 12:07 AM 08-02-2006: Ooh, embarrassing. Surprised no one else pointed this out. I guess ideally, Buenos Aires, but I've heard good things about all of it.
reggie [email] said at 1:25 AM 08-02-2006: Are you sure you want to....I'm kidding! I say go for it Brad. Sometimes a drastic change in your routine is just the thing you need to jumpstart your life. On top of that, there's not much more out there that's more valuable than good old-fashioned experience. Going abroad and shaking off the rust of complacency could be the best thing that ever happened to you. Because if you do it, and it sucks at least you will have tried something different.
The only thing worse than failure is not trying in the first place.
boson [email] said at 10:24 AM 08-02-2006: go for it man, there's nothing to lose. Even if you come back broke you've gained experience in another country... trust me, of all the people in the world, americans are the ones who NEED this experience the most.
