Monday, August 20, 2007

I'm still young, right?

In a city like San Francisco, you meet a lot of interesting people.  It's quite a diverse city but I've noticed that a lot of people went to tier 1 schools for undergrad and grad school.  I've never really thought too hard about where I fall in the whole smart & successful lineup but it can be a tad in your face here.  In Okinawa, my friends and I (for the most part) were all doing the same thing, getting paid the same, and living in the same types of apartments.  It was a very comfortable, non confrontational existence.  I pretty much put my life on hold careerwise, unless I move back to Okinawa and teach, and now find myself playing catch up.  I'm not bitter, actually most of the time I'm quite the opposite.  The adventures and experiences I've had in my 20's will be cherished and I've made some wonderful friends all over the world.  But in this dog eat dog world, it can be tough keeping your priorities straight.  I notice the guy who drives the really nice car to the really nice apt, and sometimes I notice his really nice looking girlfriend.  It sounds nice but up until this point, I've decided that there needs to be a line where I leave time for myself and not overwork.  This has come in the form of exercise in my case.  I spend 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week training for marathons and triathlons.  I've gotten faster over the past couple years and this year has culminated with me qualifying for the Boston marathon.  I enjoy all this exercise and I was planning on doing an Ironman next year, after Boston.  But with pressure to succeed careerwise, I find myself torn between my training and taking the GMAT and business classes.  After thinking about my choices, I think I've come to the conclusion that I'll do Boston next year, but I'll start taking classes in International business this fall.  When I moved back to the states after 5 years in Japan, everybody told me that my international experience and language skills would be enough to get me that great job.  I am happy but I think it's time that I took that next step towards being more marketable.  Who knows where my thoughts will be in a few months but for now, you know what I'm thinking.  By the way, my thoughts have been summarized a great deal in this blog entry.  If you really want to know how I got from point A to point B, feel free to ask me.