It has been a very good fourteen years in the States, but an unfortunate sequence of events triggered by a good number of bad decisions meant I cannot remain here, at least not for now. So I will head back, spend some time with the folks, and use that time to take up a number of personal and professional interests/projects I had never quite found the time while working here (and off-balanced because of that sequence of events).
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| My little "contemplation glade" on campus, for when I needed some quiet to think. |
My departure can be described as generally stressful, but bless my friends and the people I meet here. They became my support network, both emotionally and practically. I've spent a great deal of time with that family I met while trying to dispose of my stuff in storage (http://houganger.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-quintessentially-un-singaporean.html). They've had me over to their place for dinner several times now, and have helped me so much with moving things from my apartment to the hotel during my transition out. And now we keep in touch on Facebook. The support staff who have worked with/for me (new and old) were so supportive - asking if I was excited to be headed back, expressing sympathy for my woes, and asking if I would show them around if they showed up in Singapore while I was there (of course!). The awesome guys at the campus food truck who cheerfully gave me free meals two days in a row after they found out I was going to be gone for good. My banker who told me he'd love to stay in touch by email, after he had helped me complete the paperwork for the eventual closing of my bank account. The post office staff who wished me all the best as I made the arrangements to have my mail forwarded to Singapore (yes! They would happily forward first-class mail to a foreign address for free!). The people at the moving company were fantastic, doing their best to make it as smooth as possible to have the bulk of my stuff shipped back to Singapore quickly and efficiently. Finally, all my colleagues and my boss were so wonderful. Cards, chocolates, and best wishes flying in every which way. "Don't worry about the remaining tasks, Chee Wai," my boss said at my farewell lunch. But I want to, because I'd like to help to round the project off as best as I can so others can use it well.
Such wonderful wonderful people. I will miss this place. But then again, if I have my way ... I'll be back.
10 comments:
When you are successfully settled temporarily in Singapore again, and preparing for the next stage of your life, perhaps you can explain more to me about what you mean by 'a good number of bad decisions'. Technically, maybe because I do not believe that decisions can fall into 'good' or 'bad', but often more into 'helpful' or 'unhelpful', and depending on the degree of responsibility you are willing to bear for them, they are not as bad or good as we think they are. It's a learning experience after all. All the best though! I am sure that you will eventually get back to the USA or somewhere nearby. Maybe you want to try Canada :P I seriously prefer it to the USA on all counts as someone who lived there for a long time, and have friends and some family there.
I am also readying myself for the next step of my life after the last 10 months of my work here in Japan end(around summer of next year). Will tell you more later.
I think you've over-read my use of the term "bad decisions" - they are merely your typical decisions which ended up with a negative result (from one's current perspective). "Bad" decisions can turn out to be "good" over a longer period of time, and vice-versa. On hindsight, there are some things in my personal and professional life I wished had worked out differently.
Canada is definitely on the list of considerations. Staying in Singapore long term is not on the table if I have any say in the matter.
I will be a little honest about the USA here, since I have lived in both the USA and Canada (longer in Canada though). Granted that they are somewhat similar in some aspects culturally, I won't say that I actually like the idea of the USA as a nation or concept. In fact, anyone across the border in Canada will have a lot to say about the USA and its system, mostly not positive stuff to be honest. It probably boils down to the case of good people in a country, versus the system which--for all the fact that it is supposed to be a 'free' country--seems to screw up people inadvertently. Then again, I was never a fan of the USA, and that was why I left for Canada to begin with.
About staying out of Singapore, actually, have you considered migration (skilled migration) as an option? Technically, as a friend once told me, although he was trained as an architect, he did not mind doing something else in order to retain his AUS residency en route to getting his AUS passport and citizenship. That was probably more than a year ago, but since then, he has found a job related to his field and is going to give up his SG passport next year to finalize his process of severing ties with stupid Sinkies. I am also en route to getting a new residency in a while to come, and while it will probably take a few more years for me to get a new passport, I think that the main point is to stay out of SG just as long as possible for the rest of my life. I don't like Lee's Singapore anyway.....not forgetting stupid Singaporeans.
As an aside, the thing about post-docs in the sciences, as opposed to the arts, is that people just do seem to have that setting in which you work together as a team, and that breeds a lot of friendliness or collegiality, depending on how you see it. In the arts, post-docs basically teach at the most, but their research and writing are not really accountable in the same sense of teamwork that the sciences require. I know of a few post-docs in the arts and humanities, and what they do is mainly to develop a research project which they are kind of 'supervised' by or 'mentored' by via someone more senior or advanced in academia than them, and they are expected to produce publishable work from this. Your 'boss' sounds like a good guy and unlike most of the directors here in the Japanese university setting whom I would dread working with....
Well, postdocs in Computer Science tend to be treated as research programmers even if they are supposed to be researchers working their way towards a tenured position. As a result, many do not often find the time to pursue their own research agenda (and hence "fail" at their primary "mission"). That's a fairly good summary of what happened to myself.
Anyway, are you back in the red dot already? Hope that your plans to move out will materialize!
Yup. I am back, settling in, and putting into action my plans to eventually be out again. Picked up a little personal project I can work with in the interim, and we'll see what happens when job interview cycles kick into high gear.
Hope everything is well with you, Kevin!
I have already finished 2 years in this 3-year contract, and will submit my notice of resignation(or declining of the offer of extension...they assume automatically people will stay on till the full expiry of contracts here in Japan) around the end of this year in December. After that, I only have around 7 more months till the end of July 2014. I am actually en route to moving somewhere else outside of Singapore next year, although it is still in the pipeline. A few more years from now, I will relinquish the red passport happily and proudly. I won't stay on in academia (at least not ESL or 2nd language teaching), nor will I stay on or have anything to do with Japan, but I will be fine.
Best of luck, Kevin!
I am still in the process of waiting, but a door has been opened. Until I actually get it though, I should keep it on low profile for now, since it is better for me that way. I am looking forward to submitting that notice during the end of this year though. It has been very tough and weighed on my conscience whenever I think about how I had to work in a department where my ethics and morals as a person were conflicting with those of the director and the superiors of his.
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