Goals

The other day a (western) professor came down from the Economics department to talk to me about a class we're both working with. He was chatting with me and another lecturer and I idly asked him how his summer had been. As it turns out, he had:

Gone to Germany.
Gone to Istanbul.
Gone to Vietnam to study the language.
Taken a 13-day motorbike trip across the northeast.

At first, we got that flash of envy that everyone always gets when they hear someone else talk about doing great things. That sort of reflexive, "Gee, I wish I could do that, only I don't have enough time/money/lack of responsibilities" line we always tell ourselves as an excuse for not doing cooler stuff with ourselves.

But then it occurred to me- This person has almost the exact same life situation I do. Its true he earns more than I do, though even that probably balances out with the part-time work I do elsewhere. Its true he's tenured and I'm not, which can make a big difference in terms of work. I have a paper due in a month and two presentations to prepare for in late October. (I'm also in the office on a Sunday right now, which says a thing or two). But even the busiest people I know don't work every day. Bottom line, given the free time I have, if I don't find/make the time to do at least half of those things even amidst all the other stuff I have to do, it's on me as much as on any external excuse I can give.

I made some goals for myself a few years ago. I wanted to live in Fukuoka, have a university job, lots of surplus time and money, and someone to share it with. It took me a while to do it all, but one by one, all those things fell into place, and all the things that have traditionally held me, (and presumably most people) back from doing more- vacation time, money, career goals, etc- have more or less ceased to be issues.

So the future is now. The old goals have been met, and its time to make some new ones.