22 in review...

So lately I've been thinking about how crazy just a year in life can be, and trust me, and it turned into a pretty cool thing to think about, so I decided I might as well write about it. I mean, sometime I have to start updating my blog, and what better time than now?
Ok, so I'll get started with some highlights... One year ago I was probably sitting in my bedroom at my house in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where I lived with 3 other guys, and I was probably thinking about the two theses that I had to write, as well as all the other projects I had to do to graduate. Also, it was senior year, so there were a million other sentimental ideas that must have been pulsing through my mind as I enjoyed one of the absolute best times in life: the college years.

Graduation came and went, and two days later I found myself so busy that I didn't sleep for several days and then I hopped on a plane and went to India for a month. That trip was quite a wild adventure. It was also my first time in Asia (a place that I now call home).
After a dirty, agrivating, exciting, exhausting, unbelievable excursion into some of the deepest, darkest places in the himalayas, I made my way back home to a very unknown future.

Several days after my return, I headed up to Camp AWANA in Fredonia, Wisconsin, a place that I have spent at least 2 weeks of my summer for the past fifteen years. I wasn't sure how long i would stay there, but it turned into a long and yet quite short 7 weeks. I love that place, and it is definitely a huge part of my life.

While I was at camp, I took a lot of time to think about the direction of my life. I had thought that I would go straight to graduate school after undergrad, but my aspirations were still quite scrambled even after I graduated. I couldn't decide which track of study I should pursue, and since my three majors all still interest me, it's a tough choice. So I decided to put off school for a bit more, and take some time to try some new things and try to find direction. So for the rest of the summer and into the fall I explored lots of opportunities. For a change, I focused on some very physical jobs, something I don't mind (and actually enjoy at times) but never really thought I would do much of once I had my degree. I worked some construction in Michigan for a bit, and then did some disaster management around my hometown. Soon I started really searching for what to do more fulltime. That's when I began to really talk to my friend, Kyle, with whom I went to both Carthage and my trip to India. He moved out to Korea last summer to take a teaching job, something I never really thought I would do. But it started to sound really interesting. So I posted my resume online, and within a week I had been contacted by at least 30 recruiters, and had about 20 jobs offers (which I took as kind of a hint that perhaps it was an opportunity I shouldn't ignore). The rest of my decision process and the details are described in the posts below.
Once I accepted a position I had about a million things that I wanted to do before I left for such a long time. A year doesn't really seem like that long, but it in the time after college when lots of people's lives are changing, and people are moving all over the place, getting married, and moving on to other things in life, it's a pretty hard thing just to pack up and leave all that behind. But I guess that everyone has to make tough choices like that sometime in their life.
So in November I hopped on a plane, and headed to Cambodia and Vietnam for a few weeks to explore before my contract began in December.
I met up with Kyle in Cambodia, and we traveled all over the place, and saw some amazing things... Some people feel blessed if they get to see just one of the world's most well-known cultural landmarks... but in less than a year I've been to the Aztec pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and the Ankor-Wat temples.

When I got to South Korea, I quickly got settled in at my job. I teach kids between the ages of 11-16. And I teach them a mixture of critical thinking, analytical writing, world history, economics, and anything else that I deem worthy of class time. It's actaully been a cool experience to teach. I have pretty much full control of the class, and most of its content. And it's cool to see the kids learning, and thinking.

So the past year has seen me through the final months of college, odd jobs in three States, travels through four Asian countries, and now I'm living on my own very far away from home, making money, making choices, and living life, and, of course, learning a ton. Not bad for a year of life, huh?