Looking for a life experience

This week, I got hit by some good news and some bad news.

The good news was that I got a short term seasonal job, delivering phone books.  That should keep me solvent for the rest of the month, at least until I can find something slightly more permanent.

The bad news?  I heard back from the company with the wilderness job, and it turns out I didn’t get it.

So now I’ve got to figure out what to do with my life for the next  year.  My writing career, as always, is plan A, but that’s more of a mid- to long-term thing.  And honestly, that’s how I want it.

I feel that I need to do something big–to go on some kind of adventure.  I’ve been working hard to hone my craft, but I feel that I need to acquire some kind of significant life experience, not only to boost my writing, but just to grow as a person.  It’s tempting to look for a comfort zone and camp out in it, but I don’t think that would be the best thing for me to do right now.

Before I graduated, I decided not to go to graduate school yet for a few reasons.  First, I was sick of school, and felt that I needed a break. Second, I didn’t know what to go in for, and didn’t want to go to grad school just to postpone figuring things out.

Third, I wanted to get out of the cloistered halls of the university and gain some real world experience.  I’d spent my whole life up to that point in academia, and was sick and tired of being sheltered from the “real world.” I wanted to get out and see what things were really like on the other side of the ivy.

For the past eight months, I’ve been bouncing around in Utah, working odd jobs to get by.  It’s a different set of stresses and problems, and while I can’t say I’m unhappy, I certainly can’t say that I’m fulfilled.  Being unemployed is about as unfulfilling as you can get and still be breathing.

I could probably find and hold down a graveyard job until my writing career takes off, but somehow that doesn’t seem much better.  I don’t just need a job to facilitate my writing–I need a major life experience to broaden my perspective on things.  I was hoping the wilderness job would provide me with both of those, but unfortunately that’s no longer an option.

So what next?  Here’s an idea: maybe I could go abroad and teach English for a year.

I used to joke with all my friends that if I didn’t get the wilderness job, I’d probably leave the country and go on an adventure–but really, why not?  A chance to see the world, use the teaching and language learning skills from my degree, and acquire new skills that might come in handy later on.  Plus, when I come back, I’ll sure have a lot of interesting things to write about.

The big question in my mind is what I need to do to get ready.  I suppose the best thing would be a TEFL certificate–I could probably get one of those in a month or two through online classes.  But…is that really the best path?  And what is the best program to go through?  A couple of friends of mine who have taught English abroad for the past couple of years say you don’t need a certificate to get a job, but they were working with kids, not adults.  And for the English teaching jobs in the Middle East (especially the gulf), you really do need certification.

So I guess I still need to think it through.  Right now, my top three destinations would probably be Japan/Korea (for the earning potential), Saudi Arabia (for the Middle East experience), or the Czech Republic (for the chance to connect with my roots).

I don’t know, though.  I’ve still got to weigh the pros and cons.  I’ll probably do that in a later post–but for now, that’s what I’m thinking about.  And the more I think about it, the more attractive it becomes…