Today marks my 27th birthday, which seemed like as good a day as any to revive my long slumbering blog. It has been more than a year since I posted an update, and perhaps fittingly, my entire Saudi adventure is notably absent from these pages. It is likely better this way.
Still, much has changed in the last year which makes maintaining this blog seem rather impractical. Facebook has taken over the picture niche in terms of a ease of sharing and targeted audience; it is truly a major annoyance uploading and resizing pictures here on the now antiquated WordPress system. Of course, given my current internet situation here in Thailand, I now lack the capacity to upload any file on any site, so it seemed like it might be time to start writing once again.
I’ve never been big on birthdays. Growing up in my family they were just never a big deal. You might get a gift or two and have a cake, but aside from that your birthday was just another ordinary day. That mentality has stuck with me as I’ve grown older, but for some strange and undoubtedly arbitrary reason, 27 has struck me as being some kind of milestone. I suppose they’ve all seemed like milestones these last few years, as the reality begins to set in that I’m not 19 anymore, and though I’m still relatively young while now (officially!) in my late 20s, I won’t be young forever. And I guess that just seems a little bit more real this year than in years past, which has inspired me to post a brief yearly review of what would be considered my “adult” life thus far.
18 was my year in Oregon, and it seems like an eternity ago.
19 was the year of my six-month trip to India and Nepal, with brief stops in Thailand and Korea.
20 was the year of my five-month trip to SE Asia, culminating with an overland journey from Kathmandu to Lhasa, followed by a hithhiking adventure eastwards atop the roof the world, down the Tibetan plateau and into Yunnan Province, then onto Laos and Thailand for my flight home. A summer in the salmon canneries of Alaska funded me for a return to Thailand in the fall, when I began teaching for the first time.
21 was a year of settling in to teaching in general and living in Thailand.
22 was spent again Thailand, although it included a brief trip home. The year included a brief flourishing as an Ebay entrepeneur, which sadly ended prematurely.
23 was the year that I first began to contemplate my long-term plans. I arranged to receive the Associate’s degree for which I’d earned the credits two years previously, and prepared for a move to Taiwan.
24 was spent in Taiwan, fervently working to complete my Bacheor’s degree.
25 was dominated by my time in Songkhla, with the highlight being the completion of my Bachelor’s degree, which paved the way for my move to Saudi Arabia.
Which brings us to 26, my most recently completed year. For the first six months I was living and teaching in Saudi Arabia, which represented a rather dark chapter in my life which has inspired my desire to complete graduate studies in the field of Human Rights. A 6 week exploration of Vietnam convinced me that I was through with teaching once and for all, but after a three month stay in the United States I am, hopefully temporarily, teaching once again. My trip back to the States was truly fulfilling, and it was wonderful to see so many old friends and family members once again. I hope that it will not be another 4.5 years before I return to the States.
So what is in store for me now, in this my 27th year? The goal is to teach only until I can begin an M.A. in Human Rights and Social Development in May. Until then, I plan to do as much writing as I possibly can, continue my amateurish dabblings with the guitar, and visit the nearby mountains here in northern-central Thailand as often as I can. If all goes according to plan, 27 should be a very good year.
