Someone asked me the other day what I did. When I told her that I was sans gainful employment she physically recoiled (as if I had told her that I had but a few days left on God’s good earth) and looking aghast, said how sorry she was.
I’m not. My job came to an end officially just over two weeks ago and quite honestly I have not given it a second thought. However not having a job has given me plenty of food for thought and this particular blog (written as one does from underneath a tree in a walled garden) is about that first week of my journey into a galaxy far, far away…..
Chris Bertish is roughly a peer of mine. We are Cape Town boys of similar age and backgrounds – and of course the blindingly obvious we both share a common first name! The comparison pretty much stops there. Chris went on to become a world-renowned big wave surfer and I went on to become an Accountant. Hurtling down great slabs of water with drowning as a possible outcome has a slightly different risk profile to putting some hard hours into an Excel spreadsheet! That said we are both likely to judge that our lives have been a success up to now characterised by some peaks but also a few troughs. (I tried to come up with a good wave analogy there – high tide, low tide – nah that sucks).
Chris is also about to embark on a journey albeit of a different sort. He is endeavouring to cross the Atlantic on a paddleboard. Yup, that’s it - to paddle for 7,500km standing up for charity. He is literally paddling into the unknown. Of course he has done all the planning and preparation. His twitter feed is peppered with pictures of him practising off the coast of Cape Town checking out whales and other marine life usually with a handy sunset in the background to round off the selfie. (All I have is the odd squirrel and a postage stamp sized botanical garden to ruminate in but that’s ok!) To boot Chris is a motivational speaker so he has all the soundbytes to hand to keep him focussed and fired up on his journey.
I might be wrong though but I bet there are times when Chris thinks to himself; “Bro [or dude or man -
I cannot pretend that my journey is anything like Chris’s. I am a few weeks into mine and I am not sunburnt, seasick, windswept, tired or had any run-ins with oil tankers. But I am in unfamiliar territory. I have had a pay-check coming in for over 14 years and the stability of a job with an associated routine (us accountants love routine!). I am sure I could have got another well-paid finance job but I want something different now. I have joined a 12-week programme run by a company called “Escape The City” to help me articulate what this might look like. I am now one week into the course and I can already say that in terms of my “planning and preparation” I have made a very exciting and insightful start!
At times though I think I am going to sh6t myself as the bank account depletes and the prospect of weaving baskets profitably on a tropical island beach recedes; thankfully I will be able to turn to a cold beer for solace whereas Chris will have, what, er, a dolphin to lean on. Of course it’s all relative; him powering away in the middle of the Atlantic and me whiling away the hours in my home study with a couch and Sky Q! (And my wife if I need a shoulder to cry on! – ha)
One thing I do have on Chris however; his journey finishes in Florida whereas mine has no finite end (unless you count dying but I am no hurry on that score!). I hope that I do have the courage and fortitude not to settle for “just anything” but to be able find a way of making a living that speaks to my values, adds a bit back to the world, and doesn’t bankrupt me in the process!
OUT.
And of course I wish Chris the best of luck. http://www.thesupcrossing.com