My Long Vacation is over!

Have you watched the Japanese Drama "Long Vacation" before? It is my favourite drama and that was 20 years ago!

It was about a young man who was talented in music but was not recognised and a middle age lady who was a model but was dumped by her fiancee and her company as she was no longer popular and young.  So this two perceived failure, lonely individuals chanced upon each other and developed a relationship during their "long vacation".

I took my long vacation 2 years ago by choice to spend more time with my only child. It was not an easy decision for me. I was a workaholic who spent most of my time at work and strived to climb up the corporate ladder. So much so that when my gal looked blankly at me and refused to greet me, I realised something need to change. Also, after giving birth to my child, I felt that my ex company did not valued and recognised me as much as before and many incidents leading to it. I felt exactly like how Sena and Minami felt in the Long Vacation. Therefore after much thinking, I made the painful decision to leave my job which I spent 10 years of my best prime time working from an entry level officer to a senior manager position.

Come to think of it, this 2 years of long vacation is my longest break throughout my career. I had been working since 14 years old during school holidays in a cake shop, and moved on to work in travel agencies during my junior college times which continued to my university days. After I graduated from university, my previous ex company which was a very famous travel agency back then, straight away offered me a job. However after a few months, the company went bankrupt suddenly and I was out of job. I was desperately looking for a job after that but to no avail as it was the SARs period in 2003 and there was a recession. It took me 3 months to look for a job and I still remembered that 3 months of agony as I was the sole breadwinner of my family (I was not married yet).

Suddenly one day, my ex company which was a well known financial institution suddenly called me for an interview for a job which I had not applied with them before. Up till now I still don't know how they managed to get hold of my resume. Anyway, I quickly grabbed the opportunity and managed to get the job with an entry level position. I spent my best 10 years with them and had never ever harbour the thought of leaving until my gal came. So for a person who had not stopped working since the age of 14 (except for the 3 months hiatus due to the travel agency bankruptcy), this 2 years of long vacation is like a dream!

Did I regret my decision? Well, as a pragmatic person I always been, the opportunity cost of me quitting my well paid job was huge. But when I looked at how my gal developed during this 2 years and the happy times we spent together, it is worth it. In fact, these 2 years was the happiest time in my life. I would have wanted to stay this way forever.

However, during this 2 years, something happen too. Because of my long vacation, I got to see the truth of something. Deep down, I think God wanted to show me the truth. The truth which I did not managed to detect as I was so engrossed in my career. Ironically, these 2 years is my happiest time but also one of my most depressing time in my life. So yes, I've been awaken and I need to be realistic to plan for the future.

Taking this long vacation besides allowing me to spend time with my loved ones, opened my eyes to see the truth, it also helped me to re-look into my life what I can do to improve myself. I have acquired new interests like DIY and gardening.

So yes, I am thankful I took this long vacation. The opportunity cost of forsaking my career is the learning lessons to plan and prepare for my 后半生。

I have bucked up since then and realised what had gone will be passed eventually. I will now focus on what is important to me and plan for the best as I hope.

Looking at the recent events in this 2 years (Oil prices cut drastically, Grexit, interest rates increase, China stock market crash, Brexit, economy slow down and etc), I couldn't help but felt the next major depression may be coming soon. I was lucky to survive the 1997 and 2008 depression but having experienced the 2003 recession and seeing the impact to many others who were retrenched and bankrupted because they couldn't afford to pay off their debts, I am alerted by the recent events.

Therefore I felt although relying on single income seems ok for now as we do not have financial commitments like housing loan, car loan, maid and all along we been practising frugal lifestyle, but it may be risky in the near future as we never know what will happen. Even though his job seems stable, but I should not be complacent too.

Therefore I started planning to go back to work and I am thankful I found a new job which gives me the opportunity to contribute to the society and to grow intrinsically I hope. This new job is very near to my house too which reduce my travelling time so I can spend a bit more time with my gal. I think now is the best time for me to go back to work too. My gal has developed to be a confident and outgoing girl. She is always looking forward to play with her little friends be it our neighbour's children or her playgroup classmates or playmates. Due to her outgoing nature, she needs to have lots of social stimulation which being the only child, this is the part which is lacking. Therefore, I have signed her up to a childcare centre near our house which will start in Dec16 after she completes her playgroup program in Nov16.  I felt being in a childcare centre can fulfil her needs to be around people and make more friends. She can also learn to be more independent too.

My new job is starting soon in next month, so I can still enjoy these few weeks before going back to the rat race. I opted for a 4 day work week and took a pay cut. But it is fine as I think this job is able to fulfil my needs to contribute, to grow, to learn and to have a better work life balance.

Goodbye my long vacation. 2 years passed like a dream. I shall missed this time.