The price of independence

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where—' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
'—so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'

As most of you will probably know, that exchange is from Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, often summarised as 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.'

A rocky road, but is it leading you to where you want to go?

Independent living

While it appears that today's modern society has many "lost souls" not knowing where they're going or where they want to get to, when it comes to that never-ending search for fulfilment, from a work perspective, I'm fairly sure where I don't want to go. It's a start, I guess.

That is, allowing for the fact that we're in a highly interconnected world where being fully independent is nigh on impossible, I don't want to work for people but rather work with them.

In a predominantly wage economy with an increasingly interfering state, this freelance/self-employed as-independent-as-can-be option is more difficult to achieve, particularly in higher-income countries it could be argued.

So, if for survival reasons I had to become a company employee again, I'd need to be as close to the top as possible. Just making up the numbers has never satisfied me. I don't tend to be a great follower.

Thus, knowing that much, one needs to frame one's life accordingly. In many ways, a 14-month company-employee stint aside, I've been able to maintain a fair amount of employment independence in the more than nine years I've been based in Colombia. The flip side is that it hasn't exactly resulted in putting me on a firm financial footing.

'Worrying about potential future problems to the extent one doesn't tackle current pressing matters is rather silly.'

Therein lies the crux of the matter. For if I was to focus more so on money I would stop writing this blog, stop making podcasts (speaking of which, I hope you've checked out Get Inglés!), stop co-presenting Bogotá Nights and, to stay independent in this country, use the additional time such moves would free up to look for more students to whom I could teach English — English teaching being about the easiest and most profitable independent activity a native speaker can do in these parts.

End of the road

I would more than likely feel less fulfilled overall doing that but I would probably have more pesos in my pocket. (I hasten to add, lest the two students I currently have think badly of me, that it's not exactly that I dislike teaching English, it's more a case that I don't want it to be a full-time gig.)

For sure, life is not all about money. Yet, to state the obvious, when it's in scarce supply living becomes much more complicated.

At this moment in time, one significant area where my independence is compromised is in having to house share — my misanthropic tendencies have increased to some extent during the pandemic.

In fairness, however, in an officially stratified country such as Colombia, renting a room in a leafier suburb rather than renting one's own place in a humbler barrio may be a false economy. 

In my own case, going it alone would probably also do wonders for my general mood, even if it were to cost more, at least at that initial making-a-house-a-home stage.

Bringing it back to a broader level, we must also remember that at some point the road ends for each one of us. And we're never fully certain when that will be. 

With that in mind, worrying about potential future problems to the extent one doesn't tackle current pressing matters is rather silly.

So while some of us are not sure where we're going, I think it's fair to say the majority of us know where we don't want to go. We would do well to follow and act upon those impulses.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

 

Broadening the horizons, both mentally and physically

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

'Choose where you want to live and then find ways to make your life sustainable there.'

Does the answer lie to the north? Perhaps ...

In those pre-coronavirus days that now seem like a lifetime ago, for many open-minded people with internationally transferable skills or in jobs that required no fixed abode, and with nothing too emotional tying them to one particular place, that epigraph made a lot of sense. The world was, to all intents and purposes, their oyster.

Wealth is health

With the pandemic, while the (relatively) free movement of people hasn't completely ground to a halt, it is much more restricted than it was just nine months ago. 

In addition, there is the moral element at play in relation to the risks associated with unnecessary travel and mixing with strangers.

This can be even more of a burden considering the direction of travel in a live-anywhere-because-I-can context is heavily weighted towards emerging market countries and away from more developed nations. The latter — in theory, although this current pandemic hasn't exactly borne this out — is much better equipped to handle a health emergency.

'Many will have to reinvent themselves to survive in the new landscape.'

So, using that as a guide, it's quite understandable that a country such as Colombia appears to be making it more difficult for digital nomad types to pitch their virtual tents in its territory. 

Unless it can clearly be demonstrated you're of benefit to the state and its people, away with you. (For the record, I can't really call myself a digital nomad, if this is classed in terms of making money doing online work.)

Of course, the pandemic will pass and restrictions on movement — for tourism and some wishing to be economic migrants in any case — are likely to ease. What will take longer to get over is the fallout from it.

Work the location

For some, in terms of living standards anyway, little has changed. Indeed, in certain aspects, their lives may have even improved.

For others — and for the large part, those who were already struggling before this coronavirus — things are much more difficult. Many will have to practically reinvent themselves to survive in the new landscape.

I can't really blame the pandemic for my current imbroglio. OK, the virus ("Alan", you owe me money!) certainly hasn't helped my situation, but I took a decision to try to 'go it alone' before our enemy from the East arrived. The results thus far are nothing to write home about.

Coming back to our opening quote, if I continue to choose Colombia as the country in which I live — a decision that I have less control over today than previously — then it looks like I need to reappraise how I can "make it" here. 

Certain things that I've said no more to, specifically English teaching and marketing agency work, may have to come back into play.

Yet, if the strategy is all about finding gainful employment that I consider more meaningful and suited to my skills, then perhaps I need to reconsider the location.

There is no ideal — even Colombia purely as a location has its negatives — yet my current approach isn't exactly paying dividends.
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".