Facing Change Has Come to an End

I started this blog a little over a year ago to share my life as it changed so rapidly from one of predictability to what seemed like total chaos.  I came to Thailand out of desperation, without a job, and leaving behind family, friends and most of my belongings.  I wandered around the country and finally landed here in Fang.  I will admit that I did not like Fang at first.

The town is small and far from what I consider to be civilization.  Buddha teaches us, as did other religious leaders, that sometimes giving up all we hold dear sometimes can open our eyes to the real world.  He called this enlightenment.  Fang and the students and the teachers and the buffaloes and all the farms have enlightened me far more than I ever expected.  

As a result, I don't feel I am facing change any longer but looking to my future.  I didn't want to move to Fang last June and now I am looking to buy land to build my retirement home and have a small farm.  Although I will have to move away for a time because Nee took a good job in Bangkok, we both have our eyes set to the north.  I have only seven more days here to finish grading tests, put in my grades and pack my boxes once again.  A friend will be driving me and our bicycles to Nee's house and there I will continue my adventures for that is what this has become.  

In America, I worked in jobs I never liked but paid me too well to leave.  Here I am paid little yet I want to stay and cannot.  

As a parting with my students, I asked my advanced students to make one more video.  This time I asked them to give me directions on how to do something.  Most taught me how to cook Thai food and I will cherish them as I return to be with my wife and have to serve something other than my pizza every night.  One group did something very different and this has become my favorite video.  It is about the northern Thai language.  They had fun with it and I enjoyed watching it again and again.  I hope you enjoy it, as well.

I have decided this will be my last entry to "Facing Change" as I am no longer doing that.  I am living my life more full than I ever expected.  I will start another blog in a few months though I am not sure what it will be about.  Perhaps how to eat street food in Bangkok, as that is what the city is so famous for.  

Thank you so much for being my readers and fans.  I have enjoyed your comments and hope to hear some suggestions from you as to what I should address next.  

My closing thought is that if you want to find yourself, give up on being what others say you should be.  Take a chance and consider any failure as training for your next success.

Teacher Roy