The Plan

Leaving home to a life exiled from my family and friends I arrived in San Jose with nothing but the shirt on my back and was faced with the task of setting up a new life.

Ok, that isn't entirety true. I had a few ridiculously well packed suitcases as well as the clothes on my back. But it sounds so much better the first way.

So... I arrived in San Jose with nothing but the clothes on my back and two ridiculously well packed suitcases. Faced with the task of setting up a new life in a strange place I had no other resources then my own wit and guile.

Ok, so that isn't entirely true. I had a general working knowledge of this place. I have spent a lot of the last year here in one form or another. Plus it's not like I had no resources. My company is being very generous with an expense account that I can use to set up my life and routine here. Which is nice, because this place is really fracking expensive!!! How do these people do it?!?!

So... I arrived in San Jose with nothing but the clothes on my back, two ridiculously well packed suitcases, my wits, and an expense account. Faced with the task of setting up a new life I was undaunted because I had a plan!

Ok, that isn't entirely true. Those that know me know that I really don't roll with a big plan frequently. A plan is just a list of things that don't happen. It's not like I roll with no plan what-so-ever. I had a good idea what I was going to do. It was more developed then just an idea though. It was more of an outline. A really good outline. But “outline” doesn't flow as well as “idea”, so lets stick with that.

So... I arrived in San Jose with nothing but the clothes on my back, a few ridiculously well packed suitcases, an expense account, and a good idea of how I was going to build a life out here. That sort of sounds like a lot. Especially the expense account part. In one week though, I have learned that there is no plan that could survive past step two when trying to build a reasonable existence. I have also learned that no expense account is big enough to cover for the fact that everything you have ever taken for granted in life doesn't exist yet.

That sounds drastic, doesn't it? I thought so too, but it's not. We take so much for granted. Consider this: the can opener. Right. A simple can opener. We all have one somewhere. We probable have more then one because you lost one for a while and just bought a new one only to find your original later. If you are me you have three because you accidentally bought a left handed can opener that you still keep around just to occasionally get a laugh watching some innocent victim try and use the thing. You might not even know what drawer it is in anymore. You just find it when you need it.

But that is the point. You just find it when you need it. Now imagine that there isn't one to be found. You have to get it or that can of soup will just keep looking at you as if saying “Now what, Stupid!” You have to get every little thing you took for granted. You have to remember what it is that you take for granted and then get a new one. You. That's what you got. And this is just the can opener example. You never appreciate your family and friends so much until they aren't there. Or rather you aren't where they are.

And that is why no plan holds up past step two. When you make the plan you aren't considering the things you take for granted. As soon as the reality hits that you have to start with nothing. It's sort of daunting, even with the expense account. As I sit in my near empty apartment I think of people that have lost everything to a fire, or even worse just never had anything. Because they are out there too.

So appreciate your little things and your big things. You rely on them all more then you consider.