Electrician

I think I mentioned that I had been considering a more practical job like construction work to try out when I go back home. I looked into that and some other trade-type jobs, and it seems like two of the best trades are electrician and welder. Welding honestly sounds less interesting, more uncomfortable and involving a lot of heat. Being an electrician is apparently more dangerous, but it involves more creative and/or interpretative thinking and is slightly less physical. Construction was the main thing I was interested in, but it sounds like a lot of hard work and doesn’t pay much better than customer service, whereas an electrician can make more than a teacher. Not as much as a programmer though, ugh.

I thought of a new idea for programming though—what if I focus on embedded systems? There are plenty of jobs for that, and I think they’re pretty much all worthwhile. Also, they tend to use C from what I understand, which is a language I am familiar with. Having some electrician experience would be beneficial too, I would think. Honestly, programming is so daunting and I don’t know where to start. I get a weekly newsletter about it, but maybe I should investigate more closely how to get a job and what kind of job I’m looking for.

Somehow I stumbled upon tiny houses. They sound really neat. I would love to build one myself, but there isn’t much point unless I’m going to stay in the US for at least a few years. But if I were going to build one, it would be great to have electrician experience under my belt (otherwise I would have to hire one). Generally I’m a big fan of do it yourself projects. Tiny homes are usually built on trailers, and personally I’m not sure I would want one that small, and I certainly wouldn’t want to drive it.

Instead of accepting this wanderlust as a part of my personality, what if I ask “why do I want to move?” Maybe it’s partially social. I feel like my social group is stagnant and unsatisfying. I’m nervous about investing more in people, because there are more expectations, and I have difficulty remembering things about people unless I feel like I make a good connection with them (like I do with my students). I think that’s part of the reason that I take breaks from church—I’m dissatisfied with my relations with people, and I want to try starting over. Sure, I also want to experience new things and I do get tired of old things, but I’ve also never been in anything I considered a permanent position in the US, or anywhere else, for that matter. I’ve never thought to myself, “I could see myself doing this (or something closely related) in five or ten years.” I tried to get there with a programming job, but I was overwhelmed with my lack of success, and I wanted to go to Japan, and yeah, it was May, which is when I tend to get restless.

So my top priority should be finding a job that would potentially be more or less permanent, and then see if I really do have wanderlust. Also, improve my ability to interact with people. Hah, good luck.