Interim

There are numerous songs about waiting.  Most of them are about love.

I know ... I've googled it.

Tom Petty sings "The waiting is the hardest part" ... he's most likely talking about love (see below).  "Wait" by the Beatles - telling a girl to "wait till I come back to your side."  (Lost love).  Foreigner sang "Waiting for a girl like you."  (Cheesy 80's love).

At least Billy Bragg wades through politics and hope while he waits for the Great Leap Forward.

The end of May will represent the seventh month of "waiting" for me, to see where I'm going to end up.  Having just completed a four-week intensive CELTA course (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults for those who hate annoying acronyms), I'm ready to find my next destination, paper in hand.  

Technically, I haven't sat around twiddling my thumbs.  One month was devoted to the aforementioned CELTA, a good month and a half to getting screwed over by Saudi Arabian officials, at least a month spent on a failed Fulbright application, and other long weeks which included two interviews with UNICEF, a lot of travel around the eastern U.S. seaboard, putting a book together, and the celebration of my mom's 80th birthday.

I've called it my sabbatical, but sabbaticals are planned and financed, and generally less stressful.  This one just ate into my savings and sanity.  And apparently, six months is the deadline before unemployment is tagged as "permanent unemployment" and nobody hires you.  

Ah, good news abounds.

At least I can hold on to the old idea that "Good things come to those who wait."  Advertising geniuses have already used this to sell Guinness stout and Heinz ketchup.  

I like Guinness.  I like ketchup ... and scientists have  even confirmed that the adage is correct.  Delayed gratification, instead of the endless chasing after instantaneous, smaller rewards, pays off in the end.

Googled that too.

And there are longer waits in the world.  Hell, I've had longer waits. Thirty four years before I got to see a decent reboot of Godzilla.  Thirty seven years before I got married.  Thirty eight years for a World Series baseball title for my team (86 years for them).  

Yeah, all good things come to those who wait.  

Cue the Tom Petty.