For those who've left: any regrets?

Plus awesome travel, aside, well, from the occasional explosions! You and tbf are the two posters that I always have in my mind when I hope that all of us are safe.

 

Yes. He's great.

 

There are people who have taken the position I had, and at the first of the season, they say they think I'm crazy for leaving. Then they find out perks don't fill the kibble bowl.

 

I'm about to go into teaching and I'm pretty sure if I said all of that they'd laugh at me. The only difference is the 8 weeks in summer, two weeks at Christmas plus spring break, but the hours I'm guessing are about to be just as bad if not worse.

 

The hours aren't bad. There are just a lot of them

 

Travel is a priority for me, and, no matter your job locale, you make the effort for your priorities.

I really don't travel more than I did when I worked at my old, pre-Peace Corps place, but being plopped somewhere else for a couple years gives me a different starting point. Both tours so far have been to great travel hubs, so I've taken advantage, but, really, no more so than when I lived in Detroit. It's pretty much all I do, but it's important to me.

Next tour will be different, though, because I'll only get three times to leave the compound in the year I'm there (Baghdad), so no long weekends or anything like that. It'll be an adjustment. Three blowout vacations instead of going somewhere every three-day weekend.

Oscar, perks *can* fill a kibble bowl, depending on the perk. Housing, utilities, differential pay, R&R tickets, training and career development -- these are biggies.

There's life outside of journalism for sure.

Fun story: I am trying to fill a training schedule and I signed up for a writing class. I have had none of the prereqs and I had to take a WRITING TEST.

"We want to ensure that students who enroll in the course write clearly, concisely, and cohesively and have a solid understanding of English grammar, punctuation, and capitalization rules."

I laughed and laughed.

(And yes, I passed.)

 

Two of my all-time favorite lines. Thank you Cosmo.