Me in a nutshell
Well, you asked, so...
I have lived (so far) in 8 countries and several parts of the US, and have
traveled to 45 or so countries. With
my
family, I lived in England and the Philippines as a child. Then I lived
a (trust me) very boring existence for several years before I found
myself. I say without exaggeration that my life started in 1996 when I
did my exchange program in Australia. With no one around that knew me,
I was able to redefine myself. It was also there that I first travelled
alone. Extensively. Then I came back and was once again bored to tears
in Orange County, CA (actually everyone there that doesn't live on the
beach is bored to tears, they're just too busy driving to and from the
mall in their oversized SUV's to realize it). After working for a few
more years in Irvine, I had a chance to work in Germany, which I leapt
at. I lived in Dusseldorf for nearly 2 years and had an amazing time
traveling and making friends that I'll have for the rest of my life.
Then, for no particular reason, I quit, traveled for a while, and got
my degree at INSEAD (a murderously hard business school with campuses
in France and Singapore) and graduated in December of 2002.
At this point, the job market
tanked, and faced with the reality of being indefinitely unemployed, I
checked out teaching opportunities in Shanghai, China. Three
weeks later I landed in Shanghai. I spent 6 months there, teaching
English, bartending, studying Mandarin and once again making friends
that I am still in contact with. Then I left and backpacked the country
for 3 months. I came back about 25 pounds underweight, but had an
amazing time. After this trip, I really felt, more so than ever before,
I had earned my spurs as a backpacker. I felt confident trying anything
with a good degree of getting through it intact. When I got back, I
was, once again, unemployed, more in debt, and (yet again) living with
my parents.
Then a friend randomly contacted me that I had not
heard from in years and asked if I was looking for a job. I had the
choice of working in Munich or San Diego, so I chose Munich and spent
the next 7 months back in Germany. After slowly going crazy dealing
with customers that hated the product that company sold, I took a job
offer to be a project manager (finally, a break!) with my previous
employer. The job was essentially anywhere east of the Mississippi.
Having spent the last several years dealing with bad weather, I pulled
out an atlas and decided the only places that were 1) hot, 2) near the
coast, and 3) near a large airport, were Miami and New Orleans. Luckily
I chose Miami (Hurrican Katrina hit while I was living in Miami). I
worked there for almost 2 years and grew tremendously professionally. I
worked with a great team and learned a lot and helped a lot of
companies streamline their work. Unfortunately success has its
drawbacks. Make something look easy and people will assume it is. As my
workload increased, I finally called it quits (around 1AM after working
one too many long days), and checked out a job opportunity in San
Diego. I
interviewed and got the job and am now working here in San Diego as a
senior program manager. Two years later in 2008, I took a sabbatical from work
for 4 months to go travel through South America. Now, having traveled
extensively on every continent except Antarctica, I am enjoying spending time in
my home town with friends and family.
I am happy with the way that I have managed to experience so much of
the world and at the same time grow my career. I plan to continue doing
both.