T minus 30

As of today, only a single calendar month remains to me in my current job. I say goodbye to YB on Thursday, August 8. This evening, after I got home from work, I began photographing the bookshelves in my living room as a way of cataloging all my books and knickknacks there. I'll be doing much the same thing in my apartment's other areas—the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the bedrooms. Right after I'm done cataloging, I'll begin boxing everything up. It feels a bit surreal to be doing this—to prepare for a better life. As I wrote my buddy Dr. Steve, I almost feel as if I don't deserve this sudden upturn in circumstance. And as I wrote earlier on this blog, I do wonder whether some horrible disaster lies in wait in the near future, ready to screw up my life before I have a chance to improve it.

But those worries aside, I feel a slowly dawning sense of satisfaction: my efforts at improving my lot have paid off. I didn't just sit in the dirt for three years and bemoan my situation—I got off my ass and did something about it. I wasn't passive.

Along with self-satisfaction, I feel thankful. All this time, I've had help: moral support from my brothers and my handful of good friends here in the States, a crucial plane ticket from my buddy Tom, a generous offer of lodging from my online friend John McCrarey (whom I still have never met face to face), and encouragement from the ragtag online community that visits this blog. The power of blogging, indeed: God only knows how much money I've saved by taking commenters' advice and accepting their offers. I stayed a month in Korea for free! Beat that! I got a round-trip plane ticket through no effort of my own! I received a 750GB hard drive from commenter Hahna, completely out of the blue, and it's proved immensely useful ever since. I bought my August 13 ticket to Korea for under $670 thanks to sage advice from commenter John from Daejeon. I haven't seen a ticket price like that since 2005. Ever since my mother's death and my estrangement from my father, Bill Keezer, through his kind and constant correspondence (we did finally meet), has been like a second father to me, bless his staunch conservative heart—this despite the fact that we will never see eye-to-eye either politically or religiously.

What I'm trying to say is that, in some ways, I've been leading a charmed life. Whenever I've fallen, I've levered myself back onto my feet not merely thanks to my own native stubbornness, but also thanks to the help of others, so many others.

So now I address you directly: with thirty days to go before I say my final sad goodbyes to my students, bosses, and coworkers, I offer this post as a big thank-you to my brothers, my real-life friends (Mike, Steve, Charles, Tom, and Jang-woong), and my online friends (yes, you too, Sperwer, Ellison, Malcolm, Nomad, Addofio, Maven, Bill and Ruth, et al.!) for all the help, encouragement, and wisdom you've given me these past few years.

I hug you all.


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