Attaining the Maximum Level

I arrived in San Jose after 7 hours of travelling, passing through 2 time zones, and 1 layover in Orlando. I had an over sized duffel bag, a traveller's pack, and a computer case. When I walked out of the airport I was inundated with the sound of Spanish and the sight of chaos, as person after person asked me if I needed a ride. Costa Ricans are self-nicknamed Ticos, and are a very lively people. Costa Rica, which means "Rich Coast", constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949 deciding to invest rather in health care and education. It is also known for its picturesque landscape which boasts active volcanoes, seemingly never ending stretches of beaches, untainted rain forests, a richly diverse flora and fauna collection, and a population considered to be the happiest in the world. The place had a lot of promise, and I would be spending a significant amount of time exploring it.

In preparing myself to travel and my entry into the unknown, I read the book "Transitions" by William Bridges. The tag line reads, "making sense of life's changes", which is what I needed to do. In it, he explores the anatomy of a life transition and offers advice for people that are about to embark on such changes. He submits that in order to successfully evolve, a person must first finish an aspect in his or her life that they wish to change. It is only after that symbolic death, that a person can shed their former skin and start anew with a blank slate. The idea of the blank slate can be traced back to the earliest writings of Aristotle over 1,000 years ago, and can be found throughout western philosophy leading up to the present. Tabula rasa is the epistemological thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Generally proponents of the tabula rasa thesis favor the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects of one's personality, social and emotional behavior, and intelligence. It also leads to the idea that the past is the past and cannot be changed. I was first exposed to this way of thinking my first day of high school, at a time in my life that the feelings of regret and remorse were overtaking my adolescent mind. This theory helped me get through that stage and continues to be a driving force in my life.

What I needed to change was quite simple; be more productive with my time. You know the old complaint, "there just isn't enough time in the day"? Well, I found myself asking the question; why? What could I possibly do that gave me enough? I began by choosing the next challenge I wanted to take on; writing my first novel. I had always enjoyed writing, but always employed the excuse, "I don't have enough time. Now, while attacking this issue, I saw a perfect opportunity for change. I wondered what I could on a daily basis that would help me refine my skill. The answer to that contemplation was this blog. It would provide me the perfect medium for practicing my writing while also sharing stories with family and friends. Lastly, I needed to make extra room in each day so I could take on this new hobby while still progressing my career. I needed to "kill" a part of me that was obstructing my goal. The one thing that seemed to work as an ongoing distraction to me was The Party. Just for the record, I do not want to QUIT partying outright, I simply want to shift it down my list of priorities and adopt more self-control. If you look at a given week, the majority of your time is spent at work or doing something else work related (transportation to and from, research, preparation etc.). If you look at the activities that take up the second most, they will certainly be your hobbies. I have many; ranging from going to the movies, listening to music, and playing basketball. However, the one that accounts for the most money, time, and energy is partying. Imagine a life with no hangovers, no vague memories of ordering rounds of $6 shots for your friends, and most importantly a mind that is focused on the aspects of life that are the most important. That's what I did, and now I'm in the midst of making this shift. It certainly hasn't been easy, especially in a foreign country filled with travellers from all over the world, looking to share a good time with strangers. Again, I wasn't looking to become a Mormon, just simply to practice some more self-control.

At first my shift was easy. I was living with a host family, and I was afraid to let my guard down. I was also spending 8 hours a day in a classroom. Once I made friends, things suddenly became more difficult. My fellow students came from a wide variety of backgrounds, and it is my nature to want to familiarize myself with them. There was an older couple from Texas, Yemi and Faci, that share a tight bond in their African heritage. There was another older woman, Heather, that has aspirations of working in a Christian Mission in Cambodia. There were the recent university graduates; Chelsea, Michelle, Keenan, Kira, Wes, Pedro, Jacqui and Greg, that were full of energy and excitement to be travelling and meeting new people. Then there's Martin, the 27-year-old banker from L.A. who reminds me of my friends back home. We were all led by our savvy instructor, Iani, who taught us with an overwhelming zeal she picked up from her upbringing in Namibia and her travels throughout Asia. Together, we spent the month planning lessons, helping digest feedback, writing grammar papers, sharing restaurant suggestions, drinking litros, and shooting tequila (I never expected perfection). We travelled during our time off, were able to experience the surf and sneaky monkeys of Manuel Antonio and Caribbean culture of Puerto Viejo, while getting to know one another on a personal level. As much as I craved self-control, I would have been doing myself a major disservice by not experiencing life to the fullest. I gauge my happiness through socialization, and I simply cannot bring myself to that sort of censorship.

TEFL ended on the 22nd of October. I handed in my portfolio and I was finally free to wander this country on my own accord with no concrete responsibility to speak of. I said goodbye to Ugenio and Christina, my Tico parents, and found a new home 20 kilometers away with Martin and Chelsea in the formal capital, Cartago. I have a few weeks left before Christina arrives, and we explore this tropical land together...

The Light at the End of the Tunnel...

As the summer of 2010 approached, I began looking toward future endeavors. I had just graduated from Emmanuel, and the mundane routine of teaching everyday was weighing on me heavily. I began having disagreements with my principal and had little energy left. What kept me motivated was knowing my goal of travelling to a foreign country to teach English was in sight. I had pined through plenty of online materials until I found Maximo Nivel, a foreign language school in San Jose, Costa Rica. Initially, I wanted to travel to Spain, but the job market was weak for Americans. In Spain they tend to hire European citizens for the types of jobs I was looking for. My desire to reignite and refine my knowledge of the Spanish language was pointing me toward Latin America and so was my love for hot weather and exploring the world's best beaches. Maximo Nivel would provide me with that opportunity along with the chance of obtaining my TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate which would allow me to teach anywhere in the world. I paid my deposit and spent the rest of my summer preparing myself for this trip financially and mentally.

I moved back to Canton in February, allowing me to pay off my credit card debt and prepare myself for the upcoming repayment of my student loans. I finished my contract at PJP, continued to run my after school program, and started working for my father's business. As a kid, I would work as his assistant, learning the art of installing carpet. However, it never really occurred to me that I could eventually make a living doing it. My drive to play professional baseball and the sight of my father doing such painstaking work on a daily basis led me to pursue a college education. This time around though, I began to see the immense benefits of running a small business independently.

• Contrary to popular belief, teaching is a very strenuous career choice. It doesn't necessarily require physical labor, but the mental stress that it causes is oppressive. I chose it because I liked the lifestyle that it allowed me, but after doing it for 3 years, I came to see the lifestyle is not all that different than the corporate path chosen by many of my peers.
• There is something innately wrong with working your ass off to make somebody else rich or prosperous. This is the reason that most people accept mediocrity in the workplace. If there is no incentive to perform above the mean, people tend to calm their efforts. This isn't in my nature. I attacked teaching with such exhausting ambition, that in my short time, I became burnt out. If I am going to approach work in this manner, than I need to see more clear results from my effort.
• My hatred for business school really deterred me from all things corporate. However, if I had made it far enough into management courses, things could have been very different. I felt like my creativity was being drained in statistics, economics, and most of all; accounting. In spending time learning how to run a successful business, I learned that creativity plays a huge role in entrepreneurship.

I also spent much of the summer partying with friends and spending as much time as possible with Christina. We had no idea how being away would effect our relationship, and we tried to squeeze as much fun as possible into the summer. We went to Martha's Vineyard to celebrate our nation's independence once again, spent time couch surfing througout Cape Cod, wasting away on the sun-soaked beaches while nursing the hangovers we accrued from the nights before. We finished the summer camping in Acadia National Park, exploring the terrain and gazing at the clear night skies and orange sunrises. All the while spending time with the people we love, new friends and old, telling stories and sharing laughs. In years and relationships past, each time I went through a life transition, I would retreat from the people around me, and prepare myself for change independently. I never like to ask people for help choosing to suffer through uncertainty, almost to the point of depression. This transition was no different. I anticipated being gone for 6-8 months, hoping to land a job upon completion of my course. This led me toward a feeling of anticipated failure in my relationship. I had tried and failed at a long distance arrangement before, and I feared a sequel. Luckily, Christina and I were able to work our way through my own insecurities. I feel this was an important event for me on a number of levels. First, I was able to defeat my selfish, relinquishing ego by cooperating with the girl that I love. And secondly, I was able to hold onto her while still having the opportunity to fulfill the dream that had been growing inside me for years before we had met. Then and now, I feel like this compromise has only made us stronger and more likely to have an overwhelming amount of success in the future. Thanks XT.

The turbulent September went by quicker than the fleeting summer, and I left on the 20th. I had a lot to learn about myself and felt an overwhelming need for change. I would be 26 in October, and the next phase was about to begin.