One True Thing.

http://blog.jackcheng.com/post/4994335780/one-true-thing

I read this post randomly off of Facebook. Jack is a guy I worked with way back in the day at SS+K. He is way smart beyond his years. I appreciated this post for many reasons. Mostly because I´ve always felt like I´ve been looking for that one thing. But it always seems to evade me. Travel. That´s one thing, but I don´t think it´s the one true thing. I mean can I really live the rest of my life in a state of traveling? The short answer is yes. I could. Probably I could figure out some way to do it.

The other thing, and the big push behind choosing to travel exclusively this year in Latin America, is Spanish. I love it. Every word. The ones I understand, and the ones I don´t know yet. Right now I´m obsessed with it. I love the challenge of trying to understand the world through the lense of another language. I´m fascinated by all things Spanish. The only real way I´m going to gain real fluency in Spanish is to stay somewhere long term. Maybe Spanish is my one true thing. Or my window into that one true thing. I have a passion alive in me right now that is bigger than anything I´ve ever experienced. It would be dumb to walk away from that, don´tcha think?

So with all that said, I´ll tell you now, I´ve decided to stay in Buenos Aires. How long? I don´t know. Right now, indefinitely. When will you come home? I don´t know. Still don´t know that answer but you probably shouldn´t be looking for me in New York this fall as originally ¨planned¨. But this was the plan. The plan to leave everything behind, jobless and homeless so I could be open to every possible opportunity.

This is another reason I´ve been falling behind on the blog. I´ve been job searching. And being unemployed and job searching in Buenos Aires is just like I would imagine it to be in the US. It´s just not that exciting to blog about. Until now.

Ladies and gentlemen. It´s all happening. I got a job. In Buenos Aires. Where I will be able to work pretty much half in English and half in Spanish. I´m in it for the long haul. And I couldn´t be more excited. When I left to travel I talked about cultural immersion. How I wanted to learn the language and really immerse myself in the culture. Guess what? That´s pretty tough to do when you´re moving from hostel to hostel every few days. So it´s time. Real deal.

Frank Sinatra says if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. And I always believed him. But did Frank ever live in Buenos Aires? Cause it´s tough here. Wages are low (for Argentine citizens as well), things are expensive, inflation is out of this world. But I´m hoping that New York luck will follow me here. Only differences are that when I moved to New York, I was fluent in English and had US Citizenship. Ha. Now I´m an illegal immigrant, working part time, trying to make ends meet, not always fully understanding what´s being said to me. And it´s going to be a challenge. But I´m going to make it. And some day. Mark my words. I´m going to be fluent in Spanish.

So what´s the gig? I´ll be working a part-time admin job for 6 hours per day. This is great because I can still take classes in the afternoons. I´ll have the chance to work closely with the ins and outs of Argentine beauracracy, and see what it´s like to live in Buenos Aires on a local salary. I´m extatic.

So if you wanna see my face. Buy a plane ticket to Buenos Aires. Gonna be a while till I´m back state side.