Option THREE : Follow my heart

Last year, I celebrated my 10-year bestiversary with my friend Natasha by taking a trip to New York City. It doesn’t surprise me that you haven’t heard of bestiversaries and that’s because we made them up. When it comes to celebrating benchmarks, friendships are terribly underappreciated relationships. You’ll celebrate your six-month with a romantic partner you haven’t even really shown your true self to. Meanwhile, your best friend of years knows you better than you know yourself, is emotionally supportive and you don’t so much as send a card to say, “thanks.” So we decided to start celebrating the memories we’ve collected through the years by making a few more.

Acting took Natasha to Singapore six months ago and when she left, she took a bit of my heart with her. We still talk on Skype and email, but I miss my best friend. When her contract in Singapore is up, she’s not sure where she’ll be. Since our bestiversary trip, she has talked about moving to NY for theatre. Maybe take a roll in a Neil LaBute play. She may come back to LA and land a lead part in a Will Ferrell movie. She may meet a man from Paris, be flown out to see him and decide to enjoy baguettes while gazing at the Eifel Tower. Her life could take her anywhere, but wherever it is, that is where I want to be. My third option is to make Natasha’s location my own and pursue copywriting wherever she may be.

It’s sad to think about leaving my family in LA, but if Natasha is with me, I’ll have all the family I need.

Oh and Natasha, while writing this, I’m not wearing western wear.

Option TWO : Engrish

If you’re an idiot and you speak 7 languages, it just means a lot more people can understand you’re an idiot. – Comedian John Caparulo

But I love languages John Caparulo! And not just because when you speak another language people think you’re smarter. I mean, everyone digs feeling smart, that's why people listen to NPR. What I love about language is that it allows people to connect with people that have perspective different from their own. I grew up with my eldest sister speaking Spanish. She even went to Korean school as a kid. OH! And she is taking Mandarin at a community college this summer. Needless to say, I admire her greatly and like to think some of that natural tendency toward language awesomeness is also in my genes. Y yo hablo un poquito espanol tambien. This brings us to our second life destination option, move to a country to learn another language. What will I do for work? Teach English of course! Programs vary, but the most popular is TEFL (http://www.tefl.com/), an intensive 4-week, low cost program that allows you to travel abroad, while learning another language yourself. Places for relocation include: Costa Rica (Spanish), Spain (Spanish) and Prague (Czech).

Although exciting, this would force me to put my career in advertising on hold momentarily. I guess advertising will always be there, but will I be sabotaging myself? Will the perspective I gain enrich the work I do later? I’m not going to worry about it too much. It’s for you to decide, after all.

Option ONE : Kiwi Babies

Three years ago I visited Queenstown New Zealand to jump from the second highest bungee spot in the world called the Nevis. It was part of a three-jump package accurately called the Thrilogy. As I prepared to jump from the 404 foot high jump that would take me on an 8 second freefall, I was surrounded by a sky box full of people with nervous excitement. As I looked out over the vast rocky valley I was about to plunge myself into, I thought to myself, “I’m home.”

That sounds like a weird suicide attempt as I re-read what I just wrote, but it is more of a deep feeling of being surrounded by like minded people (active, adventure seekers) in a environment that inspires me (gorgeous landscapes, nature). Since then, I have often said, “I just want to move to New Zealand and have kiwi babies!” New Zealand is the only place I have traveled that made me feel like was home. The only place that I would think of when thinking about starting a family. Since I could take what I'm doing here over there, my first life destination to consider is sending my portfolio over to agencies in New Zealand. There is more work opportunities in Australia, so in the event that you choose this as my life destination, I will also pursue work in there. (It’s closer to making my kiwi baby dream true than staying on this side of the world.)