Originally written March 22, 2006
Imagine me, five months from now, sitting outside a cafe sweating in the jungle heat of Hong Kong. What would I possible be doing there? On paper, the letters would say I was attending a local university pursuing yet another degree. I would tell people I was there for an advanced education in international trade and global business practices. I would be investing one more year of my life in a line on my resume that no debt collector could ever take away from me. I could be an expert.
On paper that would be a wonderful success story. But why would I really be there? I could take this route where I move into a high rise condo, live in debt until I'm fifty and work as a faceless associate for the law firm of my dreams. Work 60 hours a week, weekends, and get paid handsomely for it. All the politics, all the plotting and schemes, everything that I've built up over the years would fall by the wayside and we'd start into the reality so many others I know began long ago. Or not. Now what if I went to Hong Kong? The American with a larger than life ego. This would be the adventure that London should have been. On my own, with a backpack and five outfits. Hell we could even pull a cowboy hat out, why not, I'd be a giant among the little people. Thrown across to the opposite side of the world, away from everything that I know and all the comforts that make up my routines, it would be the ultimate test of what I can accomplish, the best at what I do. It isn't about the degree or putting off reality for yet another year, its about testing myself in an environment where I doubt I could succeed by myself. After years of living up to every challenge, of staring back controversy, hippies and trouble around every bend, I need to see at what point do I have it coming for me. At what point do I lose? I need to know the limits, and there isn't a test I can imagine more dangerous than what might be in store.
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