Starting Over...

A new year. There are new visions, new goals, new prospects, new friends to be made, new experiences, and new places to go. 2007 brought great things and great adventures. It also brought sadness with various passings, but we all have to move on to the next level at some point in our lives. This will be a year of growth for me. I plan to take what I am getting now and use it so that it can grow for me in the future to give me some cushions in life. I plan to use the experiences I'm going through and the people I'm learning from and apply them for when I leave the fantasy world of ship life. At the moment I'm a bit obsessed with the books of J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter series. I never read the books and I just got them for Christmas. It's a delight reading all the missing events and descriptions the movies just cannot capture. I also got the movies to watch them later again. It's very entertaining. It also parallels ship life in a way. I spend a great deal of time out here and face new challenges each time. I pack up my things and go away to a sort of fantastical camp where there is a skewed reality. It is also temporary. You come here, do what you need to do and then leave the life behind. The memories will always be there and the friendships you hope will last. You meet all sorts of interesting and different people, and you are in a world where everyone can relate to what is happening. It's a fantasy world. An escape from the realities of the normal world. Adventures around every corner. Why would I leave this lifestyle? Simply because there are other challenges in different environments. I can, from what I believe and understand, come back whenever a position opens, but rather sit out here out of touch with what is really going on and missing all the solid friendships I gained and my family, I'd rather find new experiences on solid ground. Ship entertaining can be very fulfilling depending on the shows and the people. Sometimes you're treated like a rock star and sing things you wouldn't normally always get to sing or dance to things you normally may not dance to. It's such a closed environment out here as well and everybody knows what's going on with each other most of the time. It's also like a family. It's only on very rare occasions that you can feel alone out here. Yet there are drawbacks. It's like disappearing for those you leave behind. Like going into space and losing chunks of time. Things happen and you come back to a load of change. It's a lot to deal with when the job is finished. I plan to make a home for a bit in New York City when I'm through. I'm not exactly sure at this point what I'll do for cash when I get there, but I have 10 months to think about it and prepare. Cruising is like a drug and like drugs they are addictive and an easy escape. However you can only live a sheltered life for so long.