Imacdog and RJ Bum,
I try to keep all my posts respectful in here, but the two of you have felt free to label me, so allow me to educate you on life: it does not always give you what you want. Especially you, RJ Bum. So I need a slice of humble pie? How's this?
1) Did you flight instruct for 4000 hrs? Didn't think so.
2) Did you move to a different state 3 times for employers that all went tits up and then have to start over at pay that was tens of thousands less than your last job? Didn't think so. At least in Asia you make a decent wage (I know about 30 different guys / gals in China, HK and Japan---so don't try to lie and tell me you are not getting paid).
3) Did you take part in the voluntary measures and sacrifice THOUSANDS of dollars so as to try to prevent furloughs of your fellow employees---read that YOU---, only to get kicked in the balls for it with remarks like yours and Imacdog's?
4) Humility??!!! Try digging holes in this damned desert ground with a pick and a shovel, 10 hrs a day, 6 days a week to support your family in between jobs. Especially when you're the only one who speaks English, and you can make out from your broken understanding of Spanish that "the gringo and his college degree are nada".
5) Are you married? Do you have kids? Did you commute literally across the country and see them 4 days per month and miss out on "the little" years" of your kids?
6) Are you helping to supporting your inlaws because they are disabled and can't work?
7) Did you bury your father and help support your mom who is caretaking two of your sisters...one who is retarded and the other with terminal brain cancer?
8) Do you come "that close" to losing your wife in the hospital from a botched up job by her doctor, watching her bleeding to death faster than they could add blood? And now that she had every drop of her own blood replaced, plus two more units in the surgery, she is chronically sick, in and out of the hospital, doctor visits, and always having something wrong. Do you REALLY think I WANT to be gone 18 days a month with this???!!!
I could go on adding to the list, but you know what? There are people who have it worse than me, so I will leave it at that.
The difference between you guys and me is that I refuse to wallow in self pity and get mad at everyone else for the challenges that life has dealt me. I have some hardships, but I believe that hardships build character and strengthen us. You guys, on the other hand, get mad at everyone else and somehow think that the world owes you.
If you think that nobody working the 18 day schedule would bring you back, you are sadly misinformed. We are working our butts off, even in the GLC now. I'm doing 5 leg days just like I was in the Encore: the EMT has made a "new normal" and has no intention of improving ANYTHING. The only difference is that the 18 day schedule is the only way to provide financially for my family and the others that depend on me. And I F*CKING HATE the idea that I have to be gone 18 days to do it. And I max out the FO payscale next June....no more raises of any sort. And I'm supposed to feel sorry for YOU?! I'm 45 years old with less than $20,000 in my life savings, essentially supporting my own family and extended family as well. Am I worried? No. Am I bitter? No. Do I have anything to cry about? NO! All that I have learned from the ups and downs in life is that God will take care of me one way or the other if I only look, and for you nonbelievers, all I can say is that things have a way to work out if you try hard enough. I am quite a different man than I was when I was in my 20's or even 6 months ago.
Stop acting like Ritalin children, who want to play baseball with no scorekeeping because its bad for your self esteem. From the posts and remarks you made it here, I can only deduce that you are spoiled and weak. If you work in Asia, you should all the more see and appreciate what you have been given in this life. There are people who die as I type this reply because they have no water, no food, no medicines, etc.
I have some obstacles, but I have far more to be thankful for than I have to feel bad about. You may want to try the same approach in your attitude and outlook.
You are so busy crying that you have no shoes, that you do not notice that others have no feet.
I refuse to apologize for doing what I have to do to take care of my loved ones. Grow a backbone, borrow one, whatever...but grow up and start taking responsibility and quit blaming everyone else for your situation.
