Less Than a Week to Go!

The period of time between München and Berlin was a very difficult one almost from the start. Instead of a quiet senior year in which I could play senior statesman in my fraternity, my chapter was nearly destroyed. More than half of the chapter was thrown out by our nationals, and not without good reason. I had tried to be an arbiter of progress and reconciliation between the two parties that had emerged within the house, but it was too little too late, the divisions were fatal, and chapter operations and member responsibility went down the tubes. Soon I found myself holding more positions at once than ever before, all while trying to write an ambitious senior thesis paper, and struggling to defend my reputation while literally in the middle of a university hazing investigation that was maliciously blown out of proportion by persons with an anti-Greek agenda in the administration of the University of Puget Sound—an investigation that ended up coming to naught. 

Were it not for the support of my fraternity brothers, a sweet and loving girlfriend at the time, and friends of the house, I may not have graduated. Instead, I managed to graduate with a 3.25 overall GPA and a solid senior thesis. I am proud to say that my chapter, and the Greek system and UPS, continues to survive and seems to be rebounding from the assaults of the past few years.

          

After not being awarded the English-Teaching Fulbright Scholarship that I had hoped would take me to Austria and spare me the horrors of the Great Recession, I bounced around between short-term jobs that punctuated expanses of frustrating and humiliating unemployment, first in Tacoma, and then in Portland. It was a time when everyone had the same dime-store advice to offer but no jobs. The best times I had during those two years, were the months of June and July, which I would spend working for Red Devil Fireworks in the state of Washington. Long sticky Summer days  selling Chinese fireworks wholesale to ornery Indian stand-owners who rarely spoke and were often openly hostile to the white boys, though only on principle, nothing personal. A common T-shirt to see on the reservations I visited on my truck route said HOMELAND SECURITY SINCE 1492. That job taught me some humility, because when you’re on their sovereign land, you’ve got to mind your P’s and Q’s while accepting all their shit-talking and little tests with a smile. Still, that was the best job I've had in the last couple of years. I managed to get jerked around a few times by low-lifes, schemers, and even a bonafied psycho-asshole and often found myself wondering what in the hell I’d worked so hard all those years for. I looked into going back to school for my M.A. in Germany because the tuition is so much less, but couldn’t get any financial aid that wasn’t a variable interest loan from the same scheister-bankers that helped get us all into this mess. My last job as a professional tutor for elementary school children K-4 fell out in December 2010 because I worked for a charlatan who resented the fact that I stood up and asked questions about us never being paid on time or in the right amount. With my lease in Portland nearing an end I decided to register with an Au Pair agency and moved back home (something I swore I would never do).

After almost two years of pathetic job searching, the Goddess Germania has smiled upon me, offering respite from my tribulation and redemption for my sins. A diplomatic family in Berlin found me and thought I would make a good addition to their family as an Au Pair and English tutor. It took me a long time to accept that something good had finally happened to me. I had slipped into a serious depression that I had begun warp my world view. I was possessed by anger and avoided snapping and beating the living shit out of the many jerks who crossed my path in that time only because the fates were saving me for another purpose. The incentive for the position is not monetary; it is an opportunity, a foot in the door that will open up avenues to the future for me, and allow me to make further connections overseas. I have decided that after my own study abroad experience proved so moving and meaningful to me, that I would like to become the director of my own program, creating the opportunity for more young Americans to gain exposure to other cultures, and that education is where my passion lies. I may have a lot of living (and some more education) to do before this can become a reality, but ten years from now, assuming the world doesn’t completely go down the toilet, who knows?

This time next week, I'll be in Berlin, albeit probably exhausted.


Please let me know what you think of the format for the new blog!


I will get posting about my adventures in the skies and international terminals of  LAX, Heathrow, and Tegel as soon as I can. In the meantime, I will leave you a picture of my beloved Tipper enjoying a recent Spring snow storm.


Bis bald!