Moving On

No, I am not talking about the political type (though that has evolved as well). Almost exactly five years ago from today, I started my job in a tiny, sleepy fishing village in northeastern Japan. I still remember arriving at my town after nightfall and being treated to dinner at a local "Chinese" restaurant. After eating, my supervisor and me walked out of the restaurant, and in front of it is the Pacific Ocean, its water no longer visible in the dark but the sound of its wave lapping the dock unmistakable. I turned, and looked, and the night was punctuated only by yellow street lamps. I would not call it scary, but it is a bit unsettling that I was going into the "real world " right after graduation in an isolated corner in a foreign country. Looking back now, it was almost surreal in the sense how quick two years went by and how much more has happened since then. Life goes on.

Memory, some says, is prone to reconstruction. Be that as it may, the surreal quality of my two years in Japan actually fades with time and becomes more and more solid. I guess it is because a fine experience is usually followed immediately by a rapture that tends to disfigure what has been, but as one moves on to things, better or worse, it makes one appreciate the flow of life and what is has in store just around the corner.

Today, I started my new job in Bangkok. This time, I don't speak the language; I didn't have a job guaranteed when I landed; I have no apartment waiting for me, but I have more now. I have learned (and unlearned) more. I have more years under my belt. And, I have P and also her kind and hospital family. So another page has been turned and it is just the prologue.