Try to Face the Changes

I have been on unemployment for six months now.  It pays me a quarter of what I was getting as an auditor.  To pay my bills without putting anything aside, I need to make double that.  Nee had a temp job that is ending soon that did double our income.  She never liked the work, though, and wishes to go home.  After much thought, tears, and terror, I have decided that she has the best idea.  I am still working a few hours at a job and it will go full time next month.  The trouble is the pay is about what I am getting in unemployment.  Getting the idea here?

I have been getting to know people at my current job, finding out how they managed to get into this same financial place.  Each has a story.  One fellow, about my age, also lost his job as an internal audit.  It's a small world.  He is going to do tax preparation during the season and cross his fingers for more work after.  Another said her husband lost his job to his company going out of business.  They, too, were making what I made.  She said it was like going from comfortable to poverty overnight.  If I stay here, I will eat up my savings and then start cutting into my retirement money.  That is a very poor investment.  I know there will come a day when I can no longer work and having something I can depend on is far better than depending on the whims of my government.

Leaving the US to me is tearing my heart out.  I have two sons and a brother whom I love dearly.  I love the freedoms, the beauty of the northwest and all that America affords me.  Still, though, I will be pushing a shopping cart to survive if I keep pushing.  Going to classes to apply for jobs, I meet people who are barely eeking out a living when a year ago, they had all they needed.  Oddly, I had it all and I didn't appreciate it. 

I applied to get a teaching credential at a school in Chiang Mai, a city about 12 hours drive north of Bangkok.  The temperatures in the winter are more moderate, like southern California with more humidity.  Nee has dreams of buying land to grow something to sell at the markets.  I dream of a home.  Here is a typical home from there.

We bought our one-way tickets to Bangkok, I put a down payment on a class, and Nee has been contacting all her friends and family about our plans.  The offers for assistance are coming from many, which makes me feel a bit more confident.  Still, leaving my home, my country, is not easy.  I found an expat club there so I will probably join for a time.