Excerpt from my travel log...
Today Paris welcomed me with open arms and a kiss on each cheek. At 5.30am, thirty minutes ahead of schedule, we touched down at Charles de Gaulle just as the sun began its glowing ascent from the eastern sky. There was no time left for hesitation or panic. I was already here.
A month earlier I had resigned from an admittedly good job (which looked relatively better and better as the recession got deeper and deeper) in Singapore to now come to Paris to “find myself.” Cold feet didn’t plague me at my spring-time wedding but here I was getting cold feet on the plane ride to my summer adventure! What was I thinking leaving a well-paying job in the middle of a recession when everyone in their sane mind was hanging onto their jobs for dear life? What could I possibly accomplish living for five weeks in an expensive European capital except deplete my savings further? Had I made a monumental mistake running away from reality to an idealized memory of Paris that I’ve been building since my first visit in the summer of sixteen? And what happens if I don’t discover anything new here – hang my head low and pray to heavens my old firm would have me back?
This chain of self-interrogation came to an abrupt end as the travelers of Air France 257 jumped up to jostle for their bags. The flux of impatient voyagers eager to leave their seats for the last thirteen hours overpowered me, propelling me towards the exit...
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Dearie: These are many of the questions I am struggling with myself...But then I look in the mirror, contemplate the dark circles and light grooves that 5 years in banking has wrought upon my face...and (vanity aside) am glad that for the next few months I can work on being young, careless and free as a bluejay! see u in unemployement - the water's niiiice
ReplyDeleteIt takes courage to give up the secure. I have taken the secure route, perhaps too often. Embrace the unknown; the chances of finding something better are good; and if you choose wrong, you now have the uncommon opportunity to savor what good you had. Not much to lose, would you say?
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