Just Another Day at the Café

Successful Day 1 of job-hunting right? I wish. The thing is that there is a bunch of jobs. Awesome. Jobs that I’m qualified to do. Slim to none. I have always said that there are jobs out there but people don’t want to take the ones available because they are “below” their expectations. Well I think I’m about ready to say F-it, and try to find a bunch of part-time jobs at the moment. This full-time-job-finding-business is almost as annoying as that stupid mosquito that wakes you up at 4am and keeps buzzing in your ear. You swat and miss... 5 minutes of peace before it comes back.

This is kind of like my job-hunting at the moment. Except that there’s a constant number of jobs that are everywhere, but only every so often I find one that actually sparks an interest… then I click on it and read all the descriptions, and I’m like: “Rock on! I can do this”… Keep scrolling down and read the requirements… Check, check, check, … and then, BAM! How am I supposed to have 2-3 yrs experience for this entry-level job!!!! What is going on here… this is crazy. I have barely any experience here (but I do know I’m lucky enough to have more experience than most graduates that I know) and how am I supposed to get this “experience”.

I’m glad that I had someone dear to me explain about the phenomenal word of “Catch 22”. This is the worst !@#$ing Catch 22 that I’ve ever had experience with. The thing is that everyone knows this. Everyone knows this stupid little policy glitch we have in our corporate business life, but yet no one does anything about this. I have one guess, this is the best thing I can think of why it hasn’t been changed and that’s because “it’s usually just posted to scare off people who see the “2-3 years experience” and don’t apply.” (or I’m just trying to make myself feel better when I apply to them all)

Well you know what Company X… I’m going to apply to your job opening for a couple reasons.

1.     I desperately need to find a job because I need some money to spend on extravagant items that I think I own… but will sadly find out that those items surely own me.

2.     I believe I have about 23 years of experience with a solid 7 years of real life experience. I mean being a youngster in this day and age is surely 100x different than how others grew up and I think I’m pretty set with a basic presumption of how some things work. (by all means, I’m still clueless about 90% of the things out there)

Plus who knows, what if no one applied and I was one of the only ones that applied. With the luck that the other person had a spelling mistake and that only left me as the applicant. How sweet would that be! I guess that’s my dream of how easy this could be as right now, it’s difficult in trying to find the “perfect” job and the “perfect” career that I’m hoping for.  I’m surely about to become a regular at this local Internet café where the Internet slows down during lunch rush to an almost non-existent wireless connection.

I guess I'll never find out unless I try. So if anyone knows of some great jobs, shoot them my way.

Cheerio,

Alastar Swift 

The 1st Day of Job Hunting

Well I had planned today to be the first official day of Job hunting as I was going to stop by this Internet café and spend some time surfing job sites through out the day. Since I've been home from Taiwan I have been waking up at 5 or 6am and starting my days. It's crazy because I'm usually not a morning person and I've also been falling asleep around 10:30 or 11pm.. But this morning, I worked out, did some light reading in this amazing novel series call, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, (now I'm currently in the last half of the last book and it's one of those I can't put down books. I've also watched the movies... and sweet lord just like the Harry Potter movies.. they just put a disgrace on the book.) and watched a stand up comedy (Daniel Tosh's Happy Thoughts). This also means that I didn't get going until about 1:30pm, and I finally got to this internet cafe around 2pm. Then I find out that it closes at 3pm. Great job me.. right? Well the job hunting will have to be saved until tomorrow but I do have a couple things on my mind from the past couple of days...

Facing Fears

Especially, my fears. I faced my fear of traveling to a foreign country where I spoke barely any of the language.  Which lead me to meet some of the most amazing friends ever. That was great and it feels good to face your fears and conquer them, but at the moment I'm facing one the scariest for me. Life after college, this life doesn't have clear cut path... this has multiple paths, hidden paths, and risky paths. I had thought I had a pretty clear path when I was coming back from Taiwan, but it had fallen quickly apart as I arrive in the Denver Airport. This made me realize that I have nothing figured out which is scary as hell but at the same time I have the freedom to do anything and everything. I guess the most scariest thing for me to admit is that having so many options is quiet scary. At the moment, I've been searching for specific areas of the country that I would like to live in and then search for jobs in that area. I have also been thinking of jobs that I may be able to use my ability to speak Mandarine Chinese (well, the basics of it I guess.. haha)

One thing that I am currently struggling with is the thought of... Should I find a job where I know at least a friend in the area or do I just go for it, and go to a whole new city to start a new life. This is a hard part. I think I'm a pretty open and talkative person and easy to meet friend type of person.. but am I going to be able to do that when I put forth 40+ hours a week? I have a lot of ideas that I am wanting to do such as podcasts and maybe a video blog, since I have always been very interested in those areas.

1. because I have a lot of awesome friend that I would love to keep in touch with, and if I could have a good podcast going, invite them on it, talk about life, love, sports, and anything else. I think it'd be a great way to stay in touch with them all.
2. I also want to start something like this because I love to share my experiences with fucking up in life and showing what type of lessons I learned from it. (And boy, I have a lot of !@#% ups)

This next chapter in my life is driving me crazy but at the same time, I know I can pursue every single one of my dreams that I want at the moment. It's sad to leave somethings behind and some people as time just erodes friendships/relationships but sometimes we just have to take that and remember that it takes effort to keep things alive. 

Well I'm about to get kicked out of this internet café since it's about that time. Hopefully tomorrow I can come back and find that awesome 9-5 corporate gig! Gotta love life! (I wish there was a special font for sarcasm)

Well friends, I hope we can conquer our fears together because we all know it's scary as hell to face them. Until next time....

Cheerio,

Alastar Swift

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

I'm Sorry that it has been way to long since I've posted anything worthwhile. I hope you enjoy this super long post. I mean there nothing better than listening to music and finally writing down some thought from my amazing trip from Taiwan. Hope you enjoy and I'm sure I'll be writing more and more. Thanks again.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything down. The past couple weeks have been pretty busy as I have been spending more time with friends and exploring a little more of Taiwan. It’s weird on how I have spent more time with other things, while I haven’t really traveled much in Taiwan. I guess what they say is true, one semester isn’t really long enough for one to take it all in. There is just way too much to do in such a short length of time.

It feels like almost yesterday that I flew into Taiwan not knowing what I had got myself into. I remember the feeling of, “What have I gotten myself into and holy shit, did I make the right choice.” But as I begin to pack to travel back home, I realize that there wasn’t a better way to spend the past 4-5 months.

As always, I try to take things in and try to figure out the lesson in all of my travels/adventures. I’ve come to find out, it’s always a battle of balancing all the different things in life. Whether that balance is studying Chinese or spending time with friends, going out to see Taiwan’s night-life or waking up early to go travel, and trying to stay my healthy self or saying F-it and just eat whatever I want.

It has been tough to understand how all the different cultures work and how some things are similar while others are total opposites. If there is one thing I’ve learned it’s that I know absolutely nothing about this world. It’s been the best being able to learning all the different cultures and different ways of living as I’ve spent the past months living in the TKU international house.

I’ve always thought of myself being open and patient, but I was very wrong about that. I think the one major lesson I’ve learned from this study abroad program was to develop patience for everyone. It was a very hard lesson to learn as I’m used to my American self as we have very little patience with people that aren’t thinking before doing things. (Again a balancing act was in place here, do I just not care and go with it or should I be like, here this is an easier way… now this small sentence doesn’t apply to every situation that occurred but it gives a small incite.)

I’ve come to miss a lot of things from back home, but I’ve also come to love a whole new world of living. It’s been great to almost drop everything I used to do in America while picking up a brand new set of hobbies and way of living in Taiwan. This has helped me with figuring out what to spend time on in the near future when I will be working most of everyday and having to balance the small hours that I will be given as free time.

No matter how hard I try (not that I want to) I cannot stop playing basketball or the wanting to play guitar. But I’ve picked up a couple new hobbies while being here, learning Chinese and the want to keep learning new things. Exploring different options out there and just really experiencing things that I didn’t know what was out there. Going to Taiwan, it was like I was a kid in a candy shop. There were so many new and cool things that kept me entertain for a long time. That has inspired me to go get active within whatever community or city I plan on moving to when I find a spectacular job.

When I look back to the reasons I went to Taiwan, they really weren’t anything spectacular and very kind of selfish reasons. Selfish in a way that I wanted to grow personally, and ditch everything I had at that moment (job, friends, a very bright looking path, etc…) to see what was out in the world. I’ve talked about it before, but one of my goals in life was to travel the world. This comes from the fear of coming back to my hometown. I love my 父母 (fu4mu3- Parents) and my friends, but at the same time I view my self as a failure if I came back and started the first part of my post-graduate life there. I know it seems silly, but I’ve had that fear for a long time as I’ve seen people that graduate from high school and always come back. Year after Year, same friends, same personality, and I never wanted that. I will always keep my closest friends and that’s important to me, but the feeling of never taking a chance… I know I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. And sure, there is that chance that I may take that chance, it not working out, and I’d be forced to come back home. Well for those that think like that, I have two things for you to ponder. 

1. At least the chance was taken. The best thing that comes from that is that you learn something new about yourself. That chance may have taken up 1 year of your time and $10,000 but in my eyes its worth that expense to come to the realizations and personal growth. 
2. That’s not how you should ever think/feel. When taking a chance, a risk on something that you may have doubts that it is the right field, or you feel like it is right and everyone says no, the most important thing is to not think in a negative light. You should be like, “I’m going to go here, find this and that, do those things, and it’s going to be great.” 

Sure there is a  lot of fear involved but thinking that the chance, “could not” work out is silly. It’s like taking a chance, but believing it may not work out. It’s one of those oxymoron type deals…  

That's about it for today and I'll most likely be writing more often so it'll finally be worthwhile to check this regularly. 

Cheerio,

Alastar Swift

PS: I Miss All My Friends. Here's to all of you and hopefully I'll see you all very soon.

好久不見

Title: (hao3 jiu3 bu4 jian4) - Long Time No See

=========================================================

So it's been awhile since I've sat down and jotted some of the craziness that goes on in my head. It's been a busy past couple of week filled of the, "oh shit, I only have a couple weeks left in Taiwan!" So I've been trying to keep exploring and seeing what makes this side of the world "so different" as other's would put it. I may not have been jotting things down on this ole' laptop but surprisingly I made a few short posts in my notebook since I was hundreds of miles away from my laptop. So Here's #1

Sitting on the High Speed Rail (Taipei to Zuoying Station):

I'm sitting here (Car 4, 18D) looking out the window of the high speed train seeing the scenic night view of Taiwan as I travel from Danshui to Gaozhong. 

Left, Right, Front, and Back there are open seats but some are occupied. 

I see my reflection out the window and I think to myself... 

Damn, I've come a long way since high school. 

I have never really made a 5-year plan list where I graduated college. 

5 years ago I didn't really know anything, but I knew I wanted out of [My Hometown] and that I was going to travel the world. 

So far I have accomplished Part I of traveling the world. 

It's insane to think how much I've learned here already. 

From culture to new friends with a totally new view/perspective on life.

I've also realized all the weird things that I do that I should improve on or cut out. 

I guess it's about that time to truly try and give everything I do the same amount of effort I put on the basketball court. 

Here is #2, just some thoughts before I went to sleep:

It's crazy how much everything is different yet the same. 

Family here is Awesome, it may be because when I grew up family didn't play a big role for me. 

That's probably why I consider all my friends family. 

But this place [Taiwan] resembles everything that could happen in America or at least the same vibe/feeling. 

Sure the language barrier and definitely the different cultural things play it's role, but I really can feel at home here but at the same time it can be a whole new world. 

Language is the hardest thing but as I practice more and more I'm sure it'll get easier and easier.

People are people and geography may change enviromental differences and aspects but I feel that every human being has the same moral set. well normal human beings do. we will always find those ones who are a little off track and not all there. 

Remember We Are All One Race/Species...

Human Beings!

There are a few more jotted down thoughts and posts in my notebook, but I thought I should add a little something to this blog since it's been a while. 

It's just mind blowing to think that it's almost time to leave Taiwan. I just remember the first time I landed here and how I was just like... Oh Shit, what have I gotten myself into. This place has become one of the best places I've been too. The people, the places, the classes, and just everything I've done has been insanely awesome. It's funny how much time you have to think about your life when you can't speak all the time. It's brutally hard to be able to express and part take in all conversations since my Chinese is very limited at the moment. I've learned to listen 10x more and that sometimes I need to understand that I don't always need to express my opinion. So with all this time to think, I really have tried to sort of my life future and personal wise. It's tough to look at myself and find all the horrible things about me and the things I need to fix. It's tough to see our own flaws, but to continue to grow and become a better person I think we all need to take a step back from our lives and evaluate ourselves. When things get rough or things get down, we need to look at the situation and think: 

"What am I doing or not doing that is blocking me from what I want." "Can I fix this? and is this my fault that I'm not getting the outcome I want?" "What can I change to get what I want."

But then again, I'm a young 20-something... I know nothing about life. I still have some years to experience. I remember back in High School, I thought I knew everything to life. Baha! Awful, I look back now and think to myself... I was such a young-dumb-cocky-kid. I'm sure that in a few years I'll look back at myself now, and think the same thing. 

Good thing about life is that You can learn something new every single day. 

With that, I'll let you ponder about life and hope the best for you.

Cheerio,

Alastar Swift

PS:It's been way too long. Where have you been Stranger. Give this song a listen if you have the chance.

       A Rocket To The Moon - Baby Blue Eyes