"2008......and Lessons Learned from 1998...to Predict 2018"
Let me see. The end of 1997 into 1998 was about me not knowing what to do with my life. Or more like knowing what I wanted but not being able to get it right away. I was spending Christmas with my parents, who were living in North Carolina at the time, and was about to return to Korea to finish teaching a final term at the all-women's university. I was also planning to study Korean as a Second Language full-time at Sogang University, once I left the teaching profession for good.
I had already kind of experienced some wild times to some extent in 1997, but my life was about to go absolutely crazy in 1998. CRAZY! Take an overly horny Korean-American guy who has limited experience getting girls in the US and then put him on a campus of an all-women's university where the girls are pretty and horny, and what do you get? CRAZINESS!!!! Continue with this scenario and take away any sense of a stable career from the young Korean-American boy, despite his business training. He has a few consulting gigs at some Korean companies, teaching "business English" and such, to go along with his university teaching and Korean language studies, but other than that, he has a LOT of time on his hands. Perhaps TOO much time, part of it spent in a Seattle Espresso coffee shop near Hong-ik University where he indulges in a cup of java and his big dreams. And TOO many girls to fill in that time. Some would call him a bum. He himself says to anyone who asks that he could just hop on a plane and go back to the US and easily get a job as he already has a business degree but that he chooses to stay in Korea and survive the so-called IMF crisis for the sake of adventure. But the stigma that he may just be a bum never leaves him.
The life in 1998 IS kind of cool. Who else can brag that he has 200 plus college girls pining for him with all their fetish for the coveted Korean-American male with his native English ability and US passport? Who else gets to teach dirty-minded Korean businessmen who want to know the latest words regarding sex AND get paid a buttload of money for it? Who else gets to grow his hair down past his neck and his facial hair grow for a month? Who else starts the habit of drinking a few brews every night with his meal.......
It's a real-life version of the TV show, Entourage! And just like one of the characters from that show, I even have the highly successful brother who takes me out to all-you-can-eat sushi buffets at 5-star hotels whenever we meet. "I know you're watching your money," he says to me, "but when you eat dinner with me, you're gonna eat well." And quite frequently, I lavished in the wealthy and partying lifestyle of the Korean-American lawyers and investment bankers of Seoul through my brother.
There were the TV appearances. While studying at Sogang University, I did a few TV gigs where I traveled around the country and exhibited (in English, as the documentaries were aimed at foreigners in Korea) various Korean tourist attractions. And to SEE these attractions, appear on TV talking about it, and then getting PAID to do it was great....but the most amazing thing was....I had TIME TO DO THIS. No major office job with 12-hour days where you get reprimanded if you spend one minute too long for lunch. No deadlines for financial models or reports. No creations of presentations for the vice-president. This was my twenties (the Before Sunrise years) and not my thirties (the Before Sunset years)....this was about having TIME.
These were my times. And I strutted into a random club when this kind of music was playing. And the women that were in my life.....
Young, innnocent girls still in college. I told a good many of them to just go home and forget about their teacher crush on me....that they were still babies. But they still wanted to see me. And I was young also, with balls about to burst....
But I had this rule: Don't do virgins!!!! Never, EVER! Hm. So what to do? Think, BFK, think. Wait.....wasn't there something I saw on CNN the other day regarding President Clinton and his young intern, Monica something-or-other? What was it he did with her? I've never tried that. Hm....
And soon you're on the phone talking to a friend while the young girl is on her knees NOT engaging in sexual relations with you...at least Clinton would have said.
But what is the point of all this? you ask yourself. You want a stable career with your own home back in the US. You want stability...not this crazy, chaotic lifestyle. Sure the teaching English, the occasional consulting gig, the learning of the Korean language, the trips around Korea where I get paid to appear on TV speaking in English, and the fine young college women all wanting to jump into my bed are great, but......I WANT THAT NICE CAREER, THAT NICE OFFICE, AND THAT NICE HOME BACK IN THE US! I WANT TO LIVE LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE DO! AND I WANT TO BE NEAR MY FAMILY AGAIN! Oh God, help me to achieve this, I pray! I can't stand this much more!!
I made this kind of prayer a lot back then both in an inebriated as well as sober state. 1998 wasn't THAT fun after all.
And now, ten years later, I find myself nostalgically writing blog entries about that time.....this after having gotten everything I prayed for. I am exactly where I prayed I would be ten years ago. Almost. The BFK of 1998 would have been so envious of the BFK of 2008. Ironically, it's also vice-versa.
What lessons did I pick up from this? Should I have enjoyed myself more during that time? Should I have done MORE consulting gigs? Should I have taught MORE English classes? Should I have done MORE TV gigs? Should I have banged MORE girls? After all, in 1998, I KNEW the well was gonna run dry soon enough.
What is likely gonna happen is that in 2017 and 2018, I will likely be looking back on THIS time, 2007 to 2008, as some sort of golden period of my life like I am doing right now with 1997 and 1998. I'll likely be saying, "What the f*ck???? I had the world's greatest and most stable job in 2007 and 2008. WHY did I give it up to own a strip bar in K-town?? WHY did I give up my single lifestyle of 2007 and 2008 to have a complaining wife and kids??? WHY, GOD, WHY?????"
And as much as I reminisce about 1997 and 1998 in this entry (and indeed in this blog), I must remind myself that if I had not gotten out of that lifestyle, I would, in 2007 and 2008, be one very upset, bitter person wondering why God had not come through for me and not listened to my prayers from back in 1997 and 1998.
And yet, flawed human that I am, here I have spent the majority of my entries since I started this blog site, reminisicing about the late nineties in Korea.....the very place and time of which I was praying to God to take me away from it all.
And come 2017 and 2018, I'll probably be doing that about 2007 and 2008.
So the lesson is....
ENJOY YOUR LIFE NOW WHILE HOLDING ON TO YOUR DREAMS FOR A BETTER TOMORROW!
Of course they were FOBS straight from Korea. And I'll tell you come Monday if getting the phone numbers even mean anything for me.
Recent Comments