ಕೆಲಸ ಮತ್ತು ಎಲ್

there's a sense in which I interact with the real world as a thing I'm not wholly a part of. I probably worry too much about how I'm going to do this and that /// because, time and again, I've found myself doing things that I wouldn't have previously envisaged, or maybe even thought possible. 

there's a character we inhabit that we can use to do stuff. I was at uni learning about law and economic history, then I was sitting in a courtyard at a table with friends in China in the early evening sipping (really good) cognac with the sound of kids playing in the background. 

I didn't end up finishing any of those first courses I started in 1986. Living in Hong Kong for 8 months in 1988 - while I had deferred my studies - and teaching English as a job, which was my first work experience, really gave me a taste for work. So, when I came back to Australia, I ended up studying part time and working full time. Then certain life events happened that really squeezed out my studies, so I ended up giving up the course all together. I weighed it up...this course and the professional development I would have to undertake, as part of and after completing the course, was a major commitment. So, the question was, did I really want to be what this course was going to qualify me for? I did actually, in a lot of ways, but my life circumstances made continuing impractical, and I didn't want it that much. 

but I realised from my work experience in Hong Kong and also my experience and thinking between 1985 and 1989, that I had a real interest in education and teaching. In 1989, I had no plans to pursue that interest, but over time, ever since then, education has been a field that I have returned to again and again. 

one of the reasons that I was drawn to education, and that I found my teaching experience in HK so satisfying was because of a spiritual crisis I was going through. I was struggling with what it meant to be a person of faith - to be a Christian - and I felt like I was failing, but I kept trying. In that struggle, I hungered for some bearings - some things that I could know were good and pure, and education seemed to be something like that.