As another year fades

It's the twilight of 2010. Only about six days remain before another year rolls over and the arbitrary calendar date marks another trip around the sun. This weekend also marked the days when the nights become slightly shorter and the sunshine stretches on for a few more minutes every morning and evening. Time is a constant and continuous experiment in transition.

For this reason (I think), over the past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about my chosen profession. I think I've done this every year around Christmas/New Years for a while now... a lot of reflection about whether I'm embracing my skills and passions and if I've found the job that I'm going to do for the next 25 years. It's a daunting idea: committing to a job for the next lifetime. And I keep thinking that I'm just not sure yet. It's in these times that I think about all the other professions that I could get involved with or find particularly attractive/sexy when I hear about them.

Yes, I would like a job being a Lonely Planet Travel Advisor. Is there a position for professional contestant on the Amazing Race? Yes, I would jump at a writing job if it came at me (even though my skills are quite hack-like most of the time). I've considered human resources. I once thought about being a lawyer. The idea of journalism leaves a longing taste in my mouth. But there's this teaching thing I'm into now. Hmmm.

The Christmas weekend, though, was great. It seems to get a bit easier every year to be away, even though I hate missing out on being with my family and friends back home over the holidays. This is year #3 of a non-Alberta Christmas... I had one in Victoria after I left Kelowna, then this is my second time around the block here in the far east. A friend/colleague here has been known to use the quote, "Leaving is my consummate and cursed talent" (Karen Connelly), and I'm starting to wonder if that's part of who I am or who I'm becoming. I wonder if I'll end up being that cousin/uncle/friend who everyone just refers to in passing periodically as the guy who's gone again. I love all my adventures and maybe I'm getting ahead of myself... just that time of year for reflection.

But I filled my belly with food and drinks and was surrounded by my best China friends. I exchanged and opened gifts with a few of the more select of said friends (it's an exclusive, invite-only sort of crowd). I did some house-hopping and story-swapping and now I'm just getting ready for another week of work in the land of people who let this holiday pass by in moderate silence (and when I say silence, I mean that the fireworks and techno music blasting from storefronts stayed the same).

So, from the land of dragons, donkeys and dust, g'night and a (possibly belated) Merry Christmas. Shèngdàn jié kuàilè. 圣诞节快乐.

T