For the last couple of months, in my mind, there’s a crossroad ahead of me. Mainly because my wife and son will be going back to Indonesia for 2 months, and it’s bugging me how I’m gonna miss them. This had me thinking about life, what I wanted to do, how I wanted to go through it.
Of course, I’m thankful for my job right now, and it’s quite interesting, but it doesn’t allow me the flexibility of spending time with my family when I want, and doesn’t allow me to determine how I’m going to spend my time. I leave at 7, come home at 5.30, spend time with family, and repeat. I’m not sure what’s wrong with the North American lifestyle, but it’s quite monotonous and can get boring after awhile. Compare this to where I grew up, Indonesia. You work a whole day, and yet in the evening, there’s many more interesting things to do, and somehow it’s not as… boring.
Which presented me with some choices, will I continue to struggle here in Canada and hope we get over it after a few years, or will I go back to Indonesia; and if I do go back to Indonesia, do I work or start my own business? There are pros and cons for everything, so it just depends on where my heart is I guess. Maybe I’m just emotionally drained because I won’t have my wife and kid with me for the next 2 months, but somehow I think I would enjoy having a more exciting and non-monotonous life in Indonesia. So right now, in my mind, the choice is to go back to Indonesia within a few years.
To do that, my plan is to finish my contract position at the Government of Ontario, which will give me a total of 6 years working experience, and get a certification (they value certifications a lot over there). So when I go back to Indonesia, I have a fall back plan just in case my business is not running yet. With 6 years experience, I can get into a multinational company at a manager level with a salary of around $2500 Canadian, and live quite comfortably. In the meanwhile, I’ll also be pursuing opportunities to start my own business, with a couple of friends who have the same interests, and try to get that started. We’d be doing export and import trading between Asian countries and North America.
My own business is the end target of all this. By having my own business, I can take control of my own income, as well as eventually spend time whenever I want with my family. Of course I realize that at the beginning, owning a business will be tough on time with the family, and that’s another reason I want to do this in Indonesia and not in Canada. In Indonesia, we will have more hired help around the house, and can spend more time with each other, whereas here, if I’m busy spending time doing business and my wife cleaning the house and taking care of the children, it would be quite bad for our family relationship.
So, that’s the goal and master plan for the next 3 years or so. This could change, depending on what God wants us to do and where He wants us to be, but I’m planning on taking action as I’m quite fed up with the lifestyle I have right now. Major changes on the way I think, but in the long run this should be more exciting and better for the family.
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