I cannot thank you all enough for the comments and emails after my last post regarding the ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ dilemma. I’ve never used the blog as an advice column but it worked a treat and I cannot begin to tell you all how much I appreciated it. Without being able to chat to my colleagues around my desk, or ask the neighbours, or my usual circle of friends – it was my only idea for group advice!
I think, part of the reasoning behind my idea of leaving was I was thinking I should be ‘responsible’ – if the situation here is so bad, then is it really responsible to sit here spending my savings on living here waiting? (It was then I realised that acutally, two months isn’t all that long anyway…)
Then, as a result of the culminated advice, I realized that I am nearly there – 85% of my whole Green Card puzzle has been filled… this is just the last hurdle that I have to get over. And once I do, while it won’t always be smooth sailing, it would be the final piece in the ongoing saga journey that the whole process has been.
I should also note – I am not stone broke and living on baked beans (yes, I can get the Heinz English style baked beans here too!) and Mac Cheese. Nothing like that – again, it was just about whether what I was doing was the ‘right’ thing.
Along with that, having not by choice, never been without a job, since I was fifteen and the craziness of the overloading my Masters courses/working/getting the Green Card ‘thing’ done, over the past 18 months – it is very strange to wake up and have the day ahead not ruled by deadlines, a ten page to-do list (yes, I kid you not!) and things that must be done. So I think a lot of the transition phase is dealing with that as well.
Part of how this came about was that I really didn’t set myself any boundaries or time frames before I got here. Obviously, I didn’t know what was going to happen with the economic situation and I was partly going off my experience in Texas where I walked into a temporary agency and had a job within about fifteen minutes. I had a roundabout feeling of giving myself about a month to settle in and get everything sorted then I would just start work. No matter how much I was able to plan so much of this whole experience, some things just don’t go to plan – as I have learnt. (I have been extremely fortunate through the whole process that everything else has basically gone to plan so I am not in the position to sulk about this at all!)
So… my decision? If I am still unemployed (and I don’t think this will seriously happen but…) I will leave by the end of February. This gives me time to experience and enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas, the inauguration and more of the City itself – and also obviously extends my timeframe for finding THE job. It also means avoiding Melbourne’s summer and drought with a full winter that actually feels like winter.
Based on advice too – I am going to go down the retail side of things and see what that brings.
If I really wasn’t enjoying it here, it would have been a no-brainer – but what lead to my post is that, I think you could all tell, I truly love the city. Part of my original worry was that maybe, it would be so different living here on a day-to-day basis than all the times I have been here visiting. But no, it has been even better.
So I am a lucky gal with 85% of one of my life dreams realized. I have my gorgeous apartment (even though I hate putting out the trash because the bin area is digusting), in an area that I LOVE. When I get off the train and walk home it already feels like home. After a day bounding about Manhattan, to get off the train and see my little Korean grocery store, the lady that collects my mail and see the usual people hanging around outside the Duane Reade… it feels really comfortable.
And in the end, I guess what made it an even easier decision… there is no way I could go back to being a Connex customer so soon. 😉
Again, thank you all again so much for the advice and support and now it is back to the usual programming… 🙂