20K and a Year Away

A LOT has happened this month. Some good, some meh. Let’s start from the top.

As you know, I am back in Washington. I have gone to see Lawrence in Texas. Lydia came down to Vancouver with Axel for spring break and we hung out there. Then, I went to Bellingham with Lydia for a week, and now am in Kalama for a week and a half. After that, well…

I told you about the job I was super excited to apply for. I guess I wasn’t as excited to do it as I thought because I withdrew myself from consideration. Nostalgia probably played a big part in that urge to apply. I applied and got an interview, but I was not sure I was doing the right thing for me. I think there might be too much history there for me to be able to enjoy my work – which is very important to me.

While I was waiting for information from Longview, I got a notification for a job in Texas that I might like. I looked it up and decided, what the heck, and uploaded my resume. Within 5 minutes, I got a response from the HR person asking me to consider filling out an application, which I did. After several messages back and forth, she asked if I could come for an interview while I was visiting Texas. So, while I was visiting Lawrence, we went to a job interview. Then, they called and we went to a second one at the end of the week. They were great interviews. The job sounded like what I love to do and the team that interviewed me answered all of my questions and did not avoid the hard ones. I took the opportunity to ask detailed questions that I might not have felt I could ask before. The benefit of not needing the job gave me a lot of freedom to be as direct as I felt appropriate and request thoughtful responses. It was a great conversation. I left Texas with a lot more to think about and headed back to Washington to wait for a call to see what direction they wanted to go.

While I was in Texas, I got my date for the Longview interview. The interview would be two weeks out. Now I was in a strange position – waiting for a job offer from one place and waiting for an interview at another. I guess there are worse positions to be in. The more I waited, though, the less attractive the Longview position sounded.

As I expected – not because I am awesome, which I am, but because it went so well – I got the call from Texas on Wednesday. They wanted to offer me the job, but they couldn’t pay as much as I asked. The salary they offered was fine but lower than I have had for a while. (I suppose it is a lot more than I make right now! haha!) They were trying to get as close as possible and were willing to work with me to make it as attractive as possible beyond the salary. They gave me until the following week to let them know what I thought. Man, I had some serious pros and cons lists to write!

Now, this is where I started asking my usual sources what I should do with my life because as capable as I am, I still need some hand-holding and want to hear what people think in case I have left anything out that should be considered. I already knew that I would be more than willing, excited even, to do the job they were offering, but you get it in your head that you should never go backwards when you are climbing a career ladder after you reach a certain level. I don’t know why, but that is what is in my head. I asked everyone for their opinions. They all said the same thing. Do what you feel is right for your situation and what you want to do with your life. I know that is what you’re supposed to say, but I was really hoping someone would just tie a bow and say, “here.” I even asked Meaghan to tell me the words, “It is ok to make less money.” She did and I believe her.

I called them Monday and asked the HR director if now was a good time to talk. She was not looking forward to this phone call, I could tell. When I told her I would take it with the additional incentives they were offering, she was ecstatic and spent the rest of the call trying to catch her breath. She was certain I would decline and had braced herself for the news. They were able to come through with a very nice welcome aboard package that ticked important boxes for me and really showed me they wanted me to come on board. I then proceeded to cancel my interview with Longview. It’s funny how that job got me to reevaluate my travel plans, but it was not what I wanted after all. Life is weird like that.

Why, you ask, am I getting a job instead of continuing the travel plan? We are not quite done with traveling, yet, but we decided there are some things we need to do before we can continue the nomad lifestyle, mainly, 8th grade and then high school. Axel is a trooper, but he needs to get back with people his own age. He is starting to sound like a teenage boy version of me, and, while I think it is magnificent, he might need to branch out. I hope his lofty vocabulary serves him well in English class.

We will pick up the full-time traveling plan later. For now, we are going to do shorter trips to fantastic places. As a matter of fact, before we go back to work, we will head to South Korea, Scotland, and Iceland. That ought to hold the travel monster over for a few months. I will be so close to the airport and direct flights that taking an extra-long weekend in Panama is really not out of the question. As you can imagine, the one thing I did ask for was additional vacation time!

For my next post, I will be exploring South Korea and seeing where Matilda is living. I am so excited about this one because I don’t speak Korean, I have no idea what to do with my phone, and I am only half sure I can get local currency at the airport. What an adventure. I told Axel today that I am sure we will live, but I cannot promise we won’t get lost. Our first challenge, after immigration, of course, is to find our way from the airport to the bus station for a long ride to Matilda’s town. I have not traveled to a place where I don’t speak the language since I was 5 years old – and I picked that one up really fast. This, this is a whole new world – literally! I will be so K-popped and K-drama-ed, you won’t even recognize me! 안녕하세요!