The other day my wife asked me the question “If you had a million dollars, what would you keep doing that you are doing now?” Recently she has been working more on her art. This was a question that was suggested to her to prioritze different projects she’s working on. She asked it to me as fun dinner conversation. I thought about it for a while and realized I am in a pretty good place right now. Here are some of the things I have to be thankful for.
1) Family. I have an beautiful six-month old who is healthy and happy. My wife is brilliant, supportive and has her own interests and dreams that I get to share in, just as she shares in mine. My parents have always been there for me and have never made me feel guilty for living a life on the other side of the planet. They have encouraged me to think for myself and express myself for as long as I can remember while still making sure I understood boundaries.
2) Being Creative. This is very important to me. And maybe this is the area I do wish I had a little bit more of an outlet. But, to focus on the positive, I have the freedom to write and publish my own works. And I’m doing it. Also, music is once again part of my life. I plunk around on an instrument or two and even have a few likeminded friends with whom I can occasionally get together and play some songs with. Having people to enjoy creative endeavors with is fantastic. Even just having some podcasts to talk about nerdy stuff somewhat falls into this category for me.
3) Work. I have two jobs that do a good job of keeping me afloat. One is working in camps. These are English camps for kids. They are terrific fun and I get to meet hosts of awesome people. Another job is teaching. I work as an Elementary school English teacher. Teaching English in Japan gets a bad rap. And sometimes that rap is deserved, but not all workplaces are equal. I am thankful to work in an environment where I am part of a cooperative team and yet have independence. The staff room vibe is very supportive and I get to educate some amazing little ones. I’m also going to throw writing in this section as well. Sure, it doesn’t exactly pay the bills, yet, but I try and treat it like a job in terms of getting words on paper.
4) My Indiegogo campaign. No, really. I’m not just pleading for cotributors. Although, feel free to cotribute here. Basically, I am over a third of the way there and have util December 18th to keep collecting. I’ve got enough now to justify printing 200 copies. I’m hoping the contributors will keep coming in so I can hit my goal. The cash is nice, but I’m really excited about the prospect of new readers and what promises to be a beautiful book.
As you can see, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.
Deadly Troubadour 