Thank God I'm in Thailand! Seriously....

Everything fell into place for me to come to Thailand last summer. My decision to come here was mostly personal. I had been wanting to do something "extreme" like this for a long time. Last June, I found myself in a situation with zero attachments - nothing was holding me back to pick up and move to Thailand. I knew that if I didn't grab onto this opportunity, it might never happen again. Call it what you want, "soul searching," or whatever, I think this was the best and smartest decision I could have ever made and I have absolutely NO regrets.
I felt things at my old job were not going well, the economy was definitely not helping the situation, and with the way things were running there, I had little faith that it would weather the storm especially after things got really bad in September (after I had already left). Yet, I didn't expect it to get so bad so quickly. I just found out 6o of my ex-colleagues and dear friends were laid off today (or yesterday). The person who replaced me when I left was laid off too. Thank God I am in Thailand! I am not making much, but I have heard little about the state of the economy here, granted I don't understand any Thai... I am sad for my friends who worked so hard and who are now unemployed, but I have faith they will think out of the box and figure out the next move. The people I worked with were passionate and driven, so I have no fear that despite the difficult situation, my friends will be more than ok.
The internet has been working, so I have been spending much of my free time here at school reading article after article, one more depressing than the next, yet all glimmer with Obama hope. I have to admit, from across the world, it really didn't hit me how bad the situation was until I heard from my good friend and ex -colleague this morning about what happened.
So that being said, yes my decision to come here was mostly personal, but I realize that was probably the smartest thing I could have done - sorry I don't mean to pat myself on the back, but it's true. Maybe I should stay in Thailand for longer than 6 months!? Print this post