2007: A Year Truly Worth Forgetting

What can I say about 2007, other than it was a year like no other ... I'll ever experience in my entire life, I hope? I wish I was able to participate in the traditional Japanese "forget-the-year" festivities, but it looks like I'm gonna have to remember and live with what had happened this year indefinitely.

First of all, what the hell did I go through what I went through in Korea for? Why did I have to endure so much flat-out abuse, torment and absolute hatred that I spent most of my days there literally wishing I was dead? I had THOUGHT that it was to get experience so that I could go teach in Japan. Did that happen? No! NOVA just HAD to collapse, and I just HAD to be screwed out of a job at the same time. Good-bye, Japan, forever (other than maybe a vacation), because there's no other way in for a long period of time unless you're fluent in Japanese. That's not gonna happen here. What that means is that I went through all that for nothing. I suffered so much, but no good came out of it at all. What an incredible waste. It wasn't worth the effort and the abuse.

Then, the thing that happened in Japan itself. I came SO CLOSE to finally managing to find a future I could be happy with, and then it just HAD to be yanked away from me, leaving me without a future. (Before anyone suggests I apply for JET, AEON, GEOS or any of those other school chains, I have tried each and every one, and not only did I fail interviews with them, but also there are no more full-time teaching positions remaining in Japan for someone who does not already have a valid work visa, and given I'm unemployed and in America, it's pretty obvious that I do not have one.) People have been suggesting that I try voice acting. I'd love to do that. I'd pursue it like there was no tomorrow if it was possible. But, there's just one HUGE problem that absolutely kills that. Nevermind that I have no connections. I could be close personal friends with every single voice actor and every single person in the industry on the face of the Earth, and it'd still be an unattainable goal, considering I live in the middle of Wisconsin, over 800 miles from the nearest voice acting job market, and chances are my voice will have matured to the point that it is unusable in voice acting by the time I am in any position to move. So much for that. As for plan C, I ask, what plan C? Remaining a part-time job hopper? Being unemployed? Spending every day until I retire knowing that the best is behind and ending up with some crappy, thankless job that I hate doing and then coming home to the same old boring rut? Because unless things seriously fall into place soon, that's what my future holds. Unless there's something even better, than I'm probably never going to be truly happy again if I have to settle for such a fate as plan C.

There are only 17 hours left for 2007 to redeem itself. I doubt it's gonna happen, given all the catching up it has to do. It would take a miracle to salvage this year. When it all comes down to it, if I were to give this year a grade, the best it would get is a D-, but it would more than likely get an F. Any year in which I have to watch as my dreams crumble right before my eyes, leaving me no good options that could lead me to a bright future, the bright future I had worked so hard to try to achieve but is now completely unattainable, doesn't deserve a passing grade in my book.

I can't wait for the new year so that I can put this awful year behind me and hope that in 2008, SOMETHING comes along so that I have something to aim for in life.