In the past few months , roughly from around September I have been exchanging emails with a company in Japan about a possible job.
This wasn't just any job mind you , this was my dream job , it was the type of job i'd happily spend years of my life working towards , it was a job teaching English in Japan.
This has a bit of a twist but just bare with me while i explain
The company gave excellent support to its employees , great rates and great benefits , their methods of teaching match my methods for teaching here in Ireland ( I teach Japanese here) .
To give you an idea on how promising this job was looking here is a relatively chronological timeline of the events .
My good friend , a person who currently works within the company gave my CV and a personal recommendation to the recruiting director. After a number of weeks that director emailed me asking a few questions which i answered to his satisfaction. He then wanted me to fly to London for an interview. I met a man who represented the company in London for a 2 hour interview with my lesson plans for both levels of education i.e elementary and junior high school (although they asked to pick one) and 4 letters of reference from my old teachers , to a colleague with a good name to an old student of mine.
The interview went so well that the gentleman who interviewed me wrote an excellent report about me to the director who after reviewing it wished to interview me via skype.
In the skype interview we spoke of the job itself , my passion for my dream , my experience and the logistics of getting there. He and his Japanese co worker then sprang a surprise Japanese speech test on me which I admit i was unprepared for but nevertheless I did well , so well in fact that he said "that was impressive , we have some employees here who have been working here for a couple years who still can't converse as you've just done"
There was one issue however.
Because I don't possess a 4 year university degree , Japanese immigration would have an issue giving me a full time working visa. After contacting my friends working in the Japanese embassy here and exchanging information with the company it was unfortunately decided this morning that I would not be able to get the job.
After 4 odd months of promising looking events , great positive feedback and work and money put in on my part , with a built up hope of "This is it , my dream is finally accomplished " I was unfortunately shot down.
Here's the interesting part.
I was depressed , heartbroken even , a little angry too to be honest but that was for more personal reasons but I also , strangely enough , felt a blaze of fiery determination , of unquenchable passion.
Not 10 minutes later I emailed a university about a degree course , I emailed the company back in response to their rejection email saying that I plan to take a degree in Japanese and I will contact them again in 4 years ( emphasis on the "I will").
I didn't get the greatest start in life and my opportunities have been limited , the details on that are for another post , but my point is I have been kicked back down but strangely enough instead of my usual slow rise back up I feel that i'm almost soaring beyond , I feel that I will do what I must do and I will not let my dream be taken away , it may take 4 years , it may take 6 or even 10 years. My dream lay in front of me and I almost had it but unfortunately my finger tips merely brushed off it , but my reach will extend further I will do what it takes to get it and that's a fire that can not be put out.
What do I want you , my very few readers to take out of this?
Well if you've read this far , take a pat on the back for yourself.
Though , one thing I would say , if there is anything you can take from this is don't sulk or accept defeat when chasing your dream or fighting for what you really believe in. Take the blows , the heartache , the rejections and the losses and prove their meaningless worth by fighting on and soaring.
Soar
Monday, 6 January 2014
Monday, 16 December 2013
Alex stops complaining
In this post I decided I should talk about something less dark and moany.
So here's a brief recap on my week and what is to come.
I've been pretty busy in work over the past few days and it's been tiring and i'm sleepy but the tips were great and it's good to be pro active .
I was teaching my best student on Sunday and the sweetest thing happened. They gave me a card which was for my mother . I opened it myself because it could have only been about me and what i found inside was only the most rewarding message ever.
It said:
So here's a brief recap on my week and what is to come.
I've been pretty busy in work over the past few days and it's been tiring and i'm sleepy but the tips were great and it's good to be pro active .
I was teaching my best student on Sunday and the sweetest thing happened. They gave me a card which was for my mother . I opened it myself because it could have only been about me and what i found inside was only the most rewarding message ever.
It said:
"Dear Alex's mum
I'm sure you're very proud of Alex and I just wanted to compliment you on what a great son you have reared .
Since he has started teaching Andrew Japanese we have gotten to know him and we admire him so much . He's such a hard worker, very independent and all round good guy .
He's a great role model for Andrew . We hope his plans to get to japan in 2014 work out but we'll all miss him.
Happy Christmas
Agatha "
Well if that doesn't inflates one's ego i don't know what would .
I also received a special email .
So i forgot to mention that i'm currently in the process of applying for a big job in Japan teaching .
I have so far spoken to the recruiting director , traveled to London from a different country for a face to face interview which apparently went so well that now the big guy wants to skype interview me from Japan .
I've been told this is a great sign .
that happens Wednesday.
Me and my girlfriend had a bit of a spat but it was like this.
You know when either you or your partner or even both parties store up their insecurities and doubts and swallow their pride just to prevent arguments and not hurt the other but eventually it explodes?
well she sort of did that , and i in turn reacted a little bit too .
But unlike most experiences i've had this time it turned out quite well .
We quite calmly talked about it and dealt with it and i personally feel things are stronger .
Which is refreshing .
Now is a good time to pre warm you that i will be writing a lot about shitty love interests i've had the misfortune of having .
I have a little time off now so i'm relatively relaxed and happy .
Really unpleasant people
Warning! Moany , grumpy post ahoy!
So the other day i had the displeasure of having be to around the person I hate the most.
This person is my non blood related cousin.
The reason i had to be around this person is because every year my uncle organizes a "Boys day out" which basically entails taking my two younger cousins out with a few of the uncles and such for a day of bowling and pool and video games with some food.
Unfortunately this guy is included on the guest list for the day out.
So why do I hate this guy?
When i was much younger i used to be really close with this guy. We grew up as kids and were together most of the time up until we were about 18/19 years old.
He used to get a hard time at home , though it was self deserving really , and I was a pretty beat down kid myself.
We used to go out and drink and party and pretty much do anything to get away from it all.
Our steady decline of underage drinking and very questionable morals grew worse and worse and eventually we started doing drugs together which he introduced me to.
Fortunately for me I unlike him have a pretty good head on my shoulders and a stronger willpower and i never really got too hooked on the stuff but he was a demon on it .
I have been off all of that stuff for a few years now and everything is much better if anybody was wondering
We did a lot of really shitty things and we had as many enemies as we had friends.
He was always a "bad kid" and my friends and parents never really understood why i hung out with him and i suppose even i don't know either myself .
It was when i was about 17 I started to notice that he was poisoning my life.
There was one particular moment that really stuck out to me .
Me , him and a few friends were out at a nightclub and we're hitting the night pretty hardcore . He had a girl with him who apparently left her child on the other side of the country to come see him .
She was a rough , very .... for lack of better words dodgy looking girl.
I thought it was bad enough she had done this but to make it crazier this guy stole her bag and took 200 euro's out and told her that he saw some guy with her bag and he got it back from him.
Another instance he , my current best friend and the girl my friend was dating went out .
The prick took my best friends girl into the clubs toilets where they did drugs and had sex .
An ex girlfriend of mine also played me for him and he was so much of a snake that he went with it.
Anyway i'm going on and on , he's not a good guy thats the message here.
The boy's day out was incredibly awkward .
I did my best to be happy and not make it so obvious that I felt uncomfortable especially because it was really about my younger cousins and not about me but what made it harder was that he often tries being friendly with me at family get togethers and he often tries making small talk with me.
I don't know if this is because he feels guilty and wants to try get along again but frankly i don't care.
I don't even know why i'm writing this , I guess i like the idea of ranting on a white page and sending it off into the infinite space that is the internet where nobody will likely read it.
So the other day i had the displeasure of having be to around the person I hate the most.
This person is my non blood related cousin.
The reason i had to be around this person is because every year my uncle organizes a "Boys day out" which basically entails taking my two younger cousins out with a few of the uncles and such for a day of bowling and pool and video games with some food.
Unfortunately this guy is included on the guest list for the day out.
So why do I hate this guy?
When i was much younger i used to be really close with this guy. We grew up as kids and were together most of the time up until we were about 18/19 years old.
He used to get a hard time at home , though it was self deserving really , and I was a pretty beat down kid myself.
We used to go out and drink and party and pretty much do anything to get away from it all.
Our steady decline of underage drinking and very questionable morals grew worse and worse and eventually we started doing drugs together which he introduced me to.
Fortunately for me I unlike him have a pretty good head on my shoulders and a stronger willpower and i never really got too hooked on the stuff but he was a demon on it .
I have been off all of that stuff for a few years now and everything is much better if anybody was wondering
We did a lot of really shitty things and we had as many enemies as we had friends.
He was always a "bad kid" and my friends and parents never really understood why i hung out with him and i suppose even i don't know either myself .
It was when i was about 17 I started to notice that he was poisoning my life.
There was one particular moment that really stuck out to me .
Me , him and a few friends were out at a nightclub and we're hitting the night pretty hardcore . He had a girl with him who apparently left her child on the other side of the country to come see him .
She was a rough , very .... for lack of better words dodgy looking girl.
I thought it was bad enough she had done this but to make it crazier this guy stole her bag and took 200 euro's out and told her that he saw some guy with her bag and he got it back from him.
Another instance he , my current best friend and the girl my friend was dating went out .
The prick took my best friends girl into the clubs toilets where they did drugs and had sex .
An ex girlfriend of mine also played me for him and he was so much of a snake that he went with it.
Anyway i'm going on and on , he's not a good guy thats the message here.
The boy's day out was incredibly awkward .
I did my best to be happy and not make it so obvious that I felt uncomfortable especially because it was really about my younger cousins and not about me but what made it harder was that he often tries being friendly with me at family get togethers and he often tries making small talk with me.
I don't know if this is because he feels guilty and wants to try get along again but frankly i don't care.
I don't even know why i'm writing this , I guess i like the idea of ranting on a white page and sending it off into the infinite space that is the internet where nobody will likely read it.
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Women who are rough around the edges
In my recent post i mentioned I was drinking wine and a story involving alcohol popped into my head .
It wasn't so much that I thought the alcohol topic would be interesting , It was more that i remembered something in this story that I've never really spoke on before.
It goes like this.
A few years ago when i was young(er) and dumber I went out with a good friend of mine to this old rock and roll bar i used to always drink in day or night .
Back then this bar was my haven and a place that I thought had no wrong but looking back I see that a certain majority of the people were as dumb and crazy as I was thus deeming it a bit of a hell hole.
Anyway , so I'm drunk and having a good time and I am talking with a lot of my now ex friends that always frequent the place and I'm introducing my friend Alice to them .
I needed to go to the bathroom and so did my friends so myself , Alice and another girl whom I won't name but let's just call her Ruby went up these stairs from the basement nightclub .
Ruby was an interesting girl .
She was a bit big , heavily tattoo'd and pierced , spoke a bit rough and was , for lack of better words , not exactly the most moral person in the club.
Anyway
It turned out we took the wrong stairs as they led to a wall and a chained iron door .
In my drunken bad vision I tried pushing open the wall thinking it was a door .
I pushed the iron door and it opened. It seemed that the staff didn't chain it up properly .
The girls were returning downstairs but i peeked inside .
Inside i saw a crate of Red Bull energy drink and so I decided "What the heck i'll take one" .
Upon entering the room my vision cleared and i realized I was standing In the bars stock room .
There were crates upon crates of beers , ciders , spirits and pretty much any other alcohol a bar may have.
I called for my friend Alice and Ruby and when they came up we stuffed as many bottles as we could into our pockets , pants , handbags , bras and anywhere that could be considered a nook or cranny.
Now as i said , I'm not telling this story because I find the topic of alcohol interesting , but what sort of made me stop and wonder was this .
After successfully losing ourselves from any bouncer or security guard in the crowds we went to open our first victory beer but we realized we had no bottle openers .
That's when Ruby stepped In.
As if it were nothing she opened all of our beers that night using her teeth.
She would use her teeth as a sort of lever and pop it open .
You didn't have to be a genius to understand that it wasn't doing her teeth any favors but none the less she did it .
So I wonder. Here we have a pretty rough lady who was pretty outward with her rebellious style and strongly opinionated fiery personality , opening beers with her teeth and beating guys In arm wrestles etc and I wonder what is it exactly that makes people like this?
I don't think all women should be pretty and soft and feminine , I think it would be boring like that and it's great to have different flavors , but for slightly extreme styles like this I wonder , what is it that makes it happen?
I guess it's like asking why are gay people gay and why is a black person black that it's just as natural and built in so to speak.
Anyway after a few years I stopped seeing that crowd though I still talk to Alice because she's always been alright.
It wasn't so much that I thought the alcohol topic would be interesting , It was more that i remembered something in this story that I've never really spoke on before.
It goes like this.
A few years ago when i was young(er) and dumber I went out with a good friend of mine to this old rock and roll bar i used to always drink in day or night .
Back then this bar was my haven and a place that I thought had no wrong but looking back I see that a certain majority of the people were as dumb and crazy as I was thus deeming it a bit of a hell hole.
Anyway , so I'm drunk and having a good time and I am talking with a lot of my now ex friends that always frequent the place and I'm introducing my friend Alice to them .
I needed to go to the bathroom and so did my friends so myself , Alice and another girl whom I won't name but let's just call her Ruby went up these stairs from the basement nightclub .
Ruby was an interesting girl .
She was a bit big , heavily tattoo'd and pierced , spoke a bit rough and was , for lack of better words , not exactly the most moral person in the club.
Anyway
It turned out we took the wrong stairs as they led to a wall and a chained iron door .
In my drunken bad vision I tried pushing open the wall thinking it was a door .
I pushed the iron door and it opened. It seemed that the staff didn't chain it up properly .
The girls were returning downstairs but i peeked inside .
Inside i saw a crate of Red Bull energy drink and so I decided "What the heck i'll take one" .
Upon entering the room my vision cleared and i realized I was standing In the bars stock room .
There were crates upon crates of beers , ciders , spirits and pretty much any other alcohol a bar may have.
I called for my friend Alice and Ruby and when they came up we stuffed as many bottles as we could into our pockets , pants , handbags , bras and anywhere that could be considered a nook or cranny.
Now as i said , I'm not telling this story because I find the topic of alcohol interesting , but what sort of made me stop and wonder was this .
After successfully losing ourselves from any bouncer or security guard in the crowds we went to open our first victory beer but we realized we had no bottle openers .
That's when Ruby stepped In.
As if it were nothing she opened all of our beers that night using her teeth.
She would use her teeth as a sort of lever and pop it open .
You didn't have to be a genius to understand that it wasn't doing her teeth any favors but none the less she did it .
So I wonder. Here we have a pretty rough lady who was pretty outward with her rebellious style and strongly opinionated fiery personality , opening beers with her teeth and beating guys In arm wrestles etc and I wonder what is it exactly that makes people like this?
I don't think all women should be pretty and soft and feminine , I think it would be boring like that and it's great to have different flavors , but for slightly extreme styles like this I wonder , what is it that makes it happen?
I guess it's like asking why are gay people gay and why is a black person black that it's just as natural and built in so to speak.
Anyway after a few years I stopped seeing that crowd though I still talk to Alice because she's always been alright.
Thoughts on recent and upcoming events
Recently I've been sort of busy with work and meeting people etc that i haven't had an awful lot of time to sit down and think to myself .
I work 3 jobs , sort of. I am a waiter and front desk operator at a pretty mid to high end Asian restaurant , a private teacher of the Japanese language and the manager of a cultural exchange group that meets every week .
Although I wasn't teaching over the past few days I have been busy in the restaurant and I spent time with my girlfriend and a friend of mine and yesterday was my first free day off.
I was really excited for it and I planned to get a bottle of wine , play video games and pretty much do whatever i felt like. This was great for about 4 hours but it became really boring really quickly .
I learned that if you are the type of person who's busy and you're always doing something then you get so accustomed to it that doing nothing almost feels wrong.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself , I just felt that more could have been done.
I have been thinking about this blog and I know I've said that I'd use this as a means to tell my stories but I'm not entirely sure how to start It.
I'm drinking a glass of wine so I'll probably get inspiration soon.
I work 3 jobs , sort of. I am a waiter and front desk operator at a pretty mid to high end Asian restaurant , a private teacher of the Japanese language and the manager of a cultural exchange group that meets every week .
Although I wasn't teaching over the past few days I have been busy in the restaurant and I spent time with my girlfriend and a friend of mine and yesterday was my first free day off.
I was really excited for it and I planned to get a bottle of wine , play video games and pretty much do whatever i felt like. This was great for about 4 hours but it became really boring really quickly .
I learned that if you are the type of person who's busy and you're always doing something then you get so accustomed to it that doing nothing almost feels wrong.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself , I just felt that more could have been done.
I have been thinking about this blog and I know I've said that I'd use this as a means to tell my stories but I'm not entirely sure how to start It.
I'm drinking a glass of wine so I'll probably get inspiration soon.
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
My first post
So this is my first post in my new blog.
I used to have another blog which i recently deleted because after reading over it after being inactive for a couple years i realized how much of a smart assed self absorbed person i really was.
I guess i wasn't that bad exactly , but to give you an idea on how this blog went all i will say is that a picture of my face was my entire background .
No more needs be said really .
So what's the purpose of this blog i ask myself ?
I'm not really sure , i guess i would like to start writing my stories somewhere before i decide writing a book about my life .
Now i know i still sound self absorbed but it goes like this .
I have an uncanny knack of getting myself in the most weird and wonderful and even scary most random of scenarios and situations.
So my book wouldn't be so much about how amazing or glorious i am , but merely a means to tell stories that can humor , inspire and even provoke thought in other people .
Rather than talk about myself i'd likely just narrate the situation i experienced myself.
Anyway that's enough about that.
A little bit about myself .
My name is Alex
I am in my early 20's
Living in Europe
Studying the Japanese language with a dream of teaching in Japan one day
I drink
Don't smoke
I enjoy feeding birds
I'll likely start this blog with simple things like how my day's go and my thoughts on things and i will progress into writing my experiences and stories for nobody reading , i will also likely do a bit of that today , it's my first day off in awhile and i'm in a writing mood .
I used to have another blog which i recently deleted because after reading over it after being inactive for a couple years i realized how much of a smart assed self absorbed person i really was.
I guess i wasn't that bad exactly , but to give you an idea on how this blog went all i will say is that a picture of my face was my entire background .
No more needs be said really .
So what's the purpose of this blog i ask myself ?
I'm not really sure , i guess i would like to start writing my stories somewhere before i decide writing a book about my life .
Now i know i still sound self absorbed but it goes like this .
I have an uncanny knack of getting myself in the most weird and wonderful and even scary most random of scenarios and situations.
So my book wouldn't be so much about how amazing or glorious i am , but merely a means to tell stories that can humor , inspire and even provoke thought in other people .
Rather than talk about myself i'd likely just narrate the situation i experienced myself.
Anyway that's enough about that.
A little bit about myself .
My name is Alex
I am in my early 20's
Living in Europe
Studying the Japanese language with a dream of teaching in Japan one day
I drink
Don't smoke
I enjoy feeding birds
I'll likely start this blog with simple things like how my day's go and my thoughts on things and i will progress into writing my experiences and stories for nobody reading , i will also likely do a bit of that today , it's my first day off in awhile and i'm in a writing mood .
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