Get Set... GO!

My decision to teach in Japan was a quick one. After college I was hoping to do "Teach for America" in the city, but my friend Adam told me about the TEFL program and my plans changed in a matter of minutes. Teaching in Japan attracted me most because of reasons that would be inappropriate or arrogant for me to say out loud... deal with it! Next we took a certification class in the city for three weekends, eight hours each day. This might sound like a boring event, but the class as a whole became a close knit of friends and I considered it hanging out as a group over taking an actual class. After we gained our TEFL certificate Adam and I began to realize how real this next step in our lives actually is and now we are waiting for the end of summer so we can save money to bring with us.

Now that you know the events that have led to this trip, I will tell you what this decision has done to/for me so far. I feel like I am in limbo. My years at New Paltz are over and I know that there are many people that I will never see again. I know that many others are experiencing this as well, but it is difficult for me because of my location. Just about all of my friends I've met at school either live on Long Island, the City or just north of the City. Although others may not see some of their distant friends, they still live close enough to be in control of who they can see or not. I live near Buffalo, a little over 500 miles away from my friends. To visit them is a vacation for me and I only have so much energy to keep in contact with people. I know the friends in which I will keep in touch with hopefully through my whole life (Hello Mark, Adam, Nicole and Joanna) and I am greatful for that. I hope to add more names to that list, especially brothers in Kappa Sigma, but I feel it may be dependent on location, and even though I will keep in contact with many or see others on alumni weekends, it will not be as constant as I would like it to be. So where does this leave me now, my close friends from home are moving on, many live in different states or are married. I do have some close friends at home and a group of new ones but it is a difficult situation for me. I don't know how long I will be gone for, it could be a year or maybe two, three or four (I've decided that I will only allow myself to be away for four years because in the end, I am American). So I wonder why I should invest my time with new people. If i'm only going to be here for two more months, I believe, that I need to make sure that I don't become grounded in new friend relationships. This might seem like it is easy to do (having no cares, no obligations and so on) but my attitude in situations is completely different because of this, which sometimes is good but sometimes it is bad. So this is where I am now, in limbo, waiting for my plane to leave the runway and to start looking forward. Even though this might seem like a major problem for me, knowing that I am going to be leaving for Japan, I could care less and wouldn't switch it for anything! The last thing I would like to say is.... Adam Leiner prefers to sit down when he pees.