It’s strange having the opportunity to contemplate working anywhere in the world.  As if someone has handed me the moon, and I just need to figure out how to shine it right for me.  And it is even stranger when contemplating which road to take, which adventure to explore, that the petty idiosyncracies pop up to deter or encourage decisions.

For example, while applying for a position in rural Kentucky, I had to research the cost of living.  Thanks to the internet, I have the world at my fingertips.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear but a series of horrifying articles on infestations of brown recluse spiders.  Now, instead of picturing myself working happily for a nonprofit supporting sustainable economic development and the possibility of a farmette where I can garden to my heart’s content and explore concepts like goats and cheese making, I have the not so rosy image of nasty brown spiders with spindly legs hiding in my clothing, my bed and throughout my house waiting to sick their poisonous teeth into me.  Maybe not for me.

Or looking at a public relations position in LA with a wonderful organization advocating for children.  I am struck by the Hollywood presence on the board, and I wonder, ” Do I really want to deal with that?”  Being several thousand miles removed, it’s easy to see that job through limited vision glasses.

And just when I think to myself that I am better than this and deserve something wonderful, the power of the internet unleashes the curse of junk mail:  an advertisement to Get Away for MLK at a Days Inn.  Really?  Aside from the abysmal rhyme of ‘away’ and ‘MLK,’ I somehow don’t think I will find myself or romance at a Days Inn over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.  I certainly don’t think it should be attempted.

So I send out my missives of hope in the form of cover letters and resumes, and I retreat to the kitchen where I can serve up homemade shepherd’s pie to appreciative parents.  And I think, there is probably a lot here to be grateful for.

As ever,

K. Quinn