Well this is "first time trying", doing a blog...
Many years ago, when I was a youth I had a "Gap Year", but "back in the day" we did not call it a "Gap Year" year but having a UB40 or being unemployed in Thatchers Britain. A common experience for many at that time and a surprise to those of us that had finished higher education at University or in my case Polytechnic. Oh and incidentally "back in the day" in England, United Kingdom, or Great Britain we never used the the expression "back in the day"? When we talked about the past we might have used quaint expressions like, "in the past ..." or "in the olden days", or "in my youth".
One great lesson from my Gap Year, encapsulated by my friend Gurmel Singh was "first time trying"?
I was a volunteer English Teacher and Gurmel had recently arrived in Newham in London from the Punjab through an arranged marriage to Karmel. Karmel was a born and bread Punjabi Londoner, from Peckham. We were all the same age, except the Singhs already had two children and I was single, house sharing with my brother rock band. After a couple of hours struggling to communicate and teach Gurmel English, we would adjourn to the family living room, to play and be climbed on by the children to amazing smells coming from the kitchen. Vast quantities of food would emerge, saying no or only a small portion was not an option. With each dish Gurmel would ask, "first time trying"? This was as much an encouragement to try different food as an enquiry if I liked the food and could be applied to other experiences. For example Gurmel would report that he had , "First time trying" been on a London Double Decker bus or first time trying going out and speaking English on his own....
For Gurmel there was a great temptation to stay within his community and rely on his wife and eventually his children to communicate in English. I think at that time (or should I say "back in the day") it was more common for Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to have arranged marriages with wives immigrating to join them, who then stayed in a "bubble" of the home and their ethnic community with little need or opportunity to learn English.
Fast Forward @ 35 years, and its the start of my 2nd "Gap Year(s)"...
In these 35 years I have met my amazing wife Liz and had three children,who have grown up and left home. So Liz and I left home, firstly moving to Cairo in Egypt to work in an international school. Liz as Learning support manager and me as Primary Librarian. Even though I was fully employed, it felt like a gap year as for the first time in my working life I had full school holidays, Yeah!!!
Arriving in Jakarta really is the start of a "Gap Year (s)", on my Birthday this week I will cease to be employed by my Cairo job. I will have a new status, though I'm not sure what description fits most comfortably. Unemployed? Retired? Trailing spouse? Between Jobs? Career transition? Lifestyle change?
At one of the welcoming events organised by the school that Liz is employed by someone assumed I must be retired. Its one of those moments like being mistaken that I was my daughters grandfather (I have grey hair), that causes a jolt. So for now my approach is one of being open and searching out new experiences, or as they said "Back in the day" of the first Star Trek series I watched on our first colour TV, "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and New civilisations,to boldly go where no man has gone before. Or to put it another way:
"First time trying" my 2nd Gap Year
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