a year in review?

I normally do a year-in-review post right about now, but 2017, for all of its noise and nuttiness and Sturm und Drang, had only one noteworthy occurrence for me, and that was my awesome cross-country walk back during the April-May time frame. I spent 26 days walking about 550 kilometers and lost ten kilos along the way. As of today, I've since gained back about four of those kilos, but I'm currently on a losing track again, so here's hoping I get back down to 115 kg or under. For the asking, I transferred that adventure to this blog.

The walk changed my perspective on my existence in Korea. Now that I'm aware of how gorgeous this land can be, with all that beauty sitting under my nose this entire time, I find I'm no longer motivated to live a cooped-up office existence. I'd rather be out on the paths, walking and taking in the environment. As I alluded in the post right before this one, I'd like a measure of independence, so we'll see, in the coming year, whether something approaching a life of freedom and self-discipline is possible. I'm on contract until August 31, my birthday; at this point, I'd say there's an 80% likelihood that I won't be re-signing for another year. That may change, depending on my financial situation, but for the moment, my plan is to put the Golden Goose behind me as a source of income. I'm thankful to have worked there and to have earned enough to pay down all my major debts, but it's time to move on.

So I guess this is less a post about the past year than it is about the coming year. In 2018, I turn 49, so the end of my forties is now upon me. I suppose we'll soon find out whether it's true that life begins at fifty.