What if?

So, there are basically four-ish weeks left before our swift departure. As these weeks draw quickly to a close, I have begun to think. A lot. About everything and anything past, present, and especially future. While I have the next year planned out, everything beyond that is a mystery. The one constant thought is "What if...". What if I get scared? Sad? Homesick? What if I love it? What if I hate it?

What if I regret it?

That has to be the scariest question that I have. I constantly remind myself to regret nothing, but to appreciate each experience. Bad or good, every experience in my life has made me who I am. I have to have this experience not just to prove to myself I can do it, but also because it is going to fill a huge void in my spirit. I have been incessantly restless for longer than I care to remember. So as soon as I begin to think "What if I just stayed here and settled down?" I have to remember that without this life experience, I'll never be able to settle. I will always be longing for that missing piece.

On a different note, all our paperwork is with the Korean Consulate in Seattle. This is truly the last step in what seemed to be a never ending flow of paperwork, emails, phone calls and costs that have added up. Once we recieve our visas, we will have a departure date. We had our vaccinations done today, and my arm is quite sore, as is my wallet...but it is totally worth it of course!


Currently listening to: Gravity, Alison Krauss and Union Station

Do you not IMPORT things here?

As I wind down my first experience as a manager with World Market, I have encountered many, many interesting situations. Some have been hilarious, some have been beyond awful, and all were a huge learning experience. There have been times that I wondered what human could possibly subject themselves to this job for a lifetime. However, the positive experiences have made all the disasters, failures, and confusion worth it.

People never fail to amaze me, even when I think I have heard everything, there is a new and more insane person who comes along. I have had people yell and swear in my face because we didn't have enough of the dining chairs they wanted. One lady had three carts of stuff and walked out on all of it because we had the wrong color of directors chairs in stock. Then there was the customer looking for some wacky German food and preceeded to say "Do you not import things here?". As if I personally send requests all over the world for this coveted merchandise.

There have been the nice people of course. These however seem to be far and few between. It is always difficult to remember a positive experience because it doesn't have the same effect on the brain as anger or stress. I am glad to have this experience on my resume, but I am glad to see it go. On to the next big learning experience!

Lattes, typing, and roadtrips.

I have reached a point in the process of getting to Korea where I am moderately terrified. There has been so much hustle and bustle to get to the end. In all the noise, I didn't spend much time thinking about what the end would auctually feel like. Giving my notice at work is going to feel so final. All this time anticipating the moment, and now, tomorrow, it is here. My four weeks notice. I have a feeling it is going to be fairly shocking and may not go over well. However, I'm going to mentally prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Corinne and I have spent the last two nights trying to finalize all our paperwork to send to Korea. We have been typing cover letters, letters of resignation, and of course a little Facebooking along the way. We will mail our packets out in the morning via FedEx express mail. Among our lattes and incessant chatter about which sentence sounds better, I think we have successfully completed every step in this process. Now we just have to wait. The Korean consulate will hopefully issue our visas quickly and not require too much else. However, we have been prepared for whatever they may want from us (like really lame interview videos!).

Leading up to all this work, we of course took a four day mini roadtrip vacation which went as follows:
Bozeman (amazing. loved it. for so many reasons.). Missoula (Hooters). Helena (state capitol). Beautiful backroad back to Bozeman (see below). Bozeman again (briefly for dinner with siblings). Back to Billings (mildly disappointing).

In doing a little discovering of our home state, Corinne and I both came up with many ideas for the future during our various long drives. These of course ranged from fantasy weddings in Big Sky to having large amounts of property in the middle of the prarie, as well as reflecting on past experiences that have made us who we are today.

Needless to say, while I may be moderately terrified, I believe in myself. I believe in who I have become and who I want to be. Dear South Korea, It's on.



Wheat Montana fields (somewhere between Helena and Three Forks).