A un año de que dijo adios mi viejo.

Cuando empiezan a decir adiós tus primeros maestros asaltan al unísono la nostalgia, y el remordimiento de lo que no hiciste, de las conversaciones que no fueron, de los afectos no dados y de las palabras duras que escaparon. Cuando se van ellos que te vieron chico te mira a los ojos tu propia vulnerabilidad, sabiendo en carne propia que el reloj nunca se detuvo… ni se detendrá.

El sonido sobrio del clarín anunciando el cambio de guardia, una generación que de a poco repartirá “hasta luegos”, y un reloj que parece caminar mas pronto. Una extraña nostalgia que lo es, a la vez, de pasado y futuro. Y queda solo la esperanza, del encuentro futuro, de las calles de oro, de los mares de cristal, de mansiones mas allá del sol, sublime poesía, intensa poesía. Quizá reencarnación, un nuevo comienzo, una nueva historia, ni cielos ni palacios, otra ronda de tierra, sin memoria sin embargo, tan solo el salario de la propia virtud. Al final quizá solo la vaga esperanza de un mejor lugar.

Un mejor lugar que quizá sea, por lo menos, un lugar donde el dolor no puede ya perseguir, donde la angustia de la incertidumbre ha cesado, porque ha cesado con todo lo demás. Quizá ser uno con el universo sea, por lo menos, que ese polvo de estrellas del que estamos hechos vuelva hacia la tierra, y quizá la reencarnación sea, por lo menos, dar nueva vida al pasto que verá correr pies infantiles.

Quizá volvamos a ver a los nuestros, por lo menos, en los recuerdos queridos, en sus sonrisas en sus buenos consejos. Quizá la vida sea eterna, por lo menos, en que entramos a ella sin notarlo y lo más seguro es que de igual manera nos iremos, y así sin principio ni fin, nuestro suspiro cósmico tenga sabor a eternidad.

Sabemos muy poco, y hemos convertido muy buena poesía en muy mala prosa, y hemos devaluado la eternidad propia en nuestra esperanza por una metáfora, quizá, en esperar justicia perfecta futura, nos hemos olvidado de disminuir la injusticia frente a nuestros ojos. Quizá en luchar por esta justicia, no podamos hacer mucho por quienes nos precedieron, pero quizá haremos un poco por quienes vendrán.

Cuando Vuelva

Cuando vuelva tú amanecer será el mío

yo saldré de mi crisálida y tu ya habrás florecido

tu que fuiste mi alimento, dulce madre amada mía

tu que me diste lamento también luz y la alegría

tu razón de mis pesares y razón de mis anhelos

la primavera de nuevo a tu seno ha de traerme

con las aves aquel día no me marche para siempre

cuando escuche de tu hormigo en mi propio pensamiento

cuando oiga de tus aves en las ráfagas del viento

cuando recuerde tu gente en las sonrisas extrañas

cuando el calor de la hoguera me recuerde tus entrañas

anhelante mi espíritu me sacara del exilio

y volverá con el viento a tu eterna primavera

y a tus aguas mis cenizas desde el día en que yo muera

Graduation Time, Dream Big Have Plans but Beware of the Asia Mirage

The purpose of this article is not to pontificate about my own experience, since everyone has a different story and each mind is not a world but a universe. However, since some of my friends have asked me, “I'm graduating this year, I really like Taiwan, is it really that hard to get a job? should I teach English for a while to stay here a bit long? How hard is to open a company here? I would like to share a bit of what my experience of six years in the beautiful island has taught me.

If you are reading this and you were never a scholarship recipient, you might be acquainted with the fact that life in Taiwan is comfortable, but not by any means easy. Paying the bills might be hard, if you don't have a wire from home regularly, and you probably learned that the hard way. If you are (were might be the proper word) a scholarship recipient, I'm sure you would certainly call the latest years, the time of your life, with great friends, great places, money in the bank and many interesting activities. You've certainly learned a lot from great professors and you have great hopes for your career. According to what I've seen from friends and myself that hope is not overstated only misplaced, the months after graduation are a great time to evaluate your plans and figure out if staying in Asia is the really the best for you. Giving you some input on that is the purpose of this article.

The reason I call Asia a mirage, is because for many of us, the plans of staying have a very big component of nostalgia, something that I think is common in any transition in life, we are afraid of let go, so we want to extend the current stage as long as possible, mainly because secretly we want life to stay the same. In other words, the college years were so good that we want to extend them, and the most obvious way of doing that is by staying here, however without a solid plan or purpose of what you want to accomplish by staying, you are most likely better off calling the day and moving on, back home or to other location where you do have a plan.

Realize that after graduation, you and your friends will follow different ways, even if many of you want to stay, not many of you will accomplish it, and those who do, would be too busy to recreate the beer-pong of college even once a month. As well, beware, there are many ways to get along and procrastinate on a serious life plan while in Taiwan. There are ways of making some money now and then even if you don't land a formal job or own your own company, teaching English, tutoring, through artistic performances and even by becoming a PR for some of your favorite clubs. Some of this activities are simply not sustainable, so lets not address them for now, lets talk about the ones that are feasible.

The teaching English job market, is largely a gray market, it is hard to land a job teaching adults and in many cases the infamous cram school industry is all about exploiting the teachers, ripping off the parents and keeping the kids busy. If you are not a native English speaker your work in the industry is illegal, and so your chances of ending up in a school with shady practices are multiplied. I myself have never taught languages at an institution (as many of my friends have done), I had done tutoring now and then, and I can tell you that the chances of making a livelihood on tutoring are slim.

Landing a “formal” job at a company is not easy, working in the company once you've landed the job is even harder; 50% of Taiwanese workforce works hours that exceed statutory limits (84 hour in a two week period). Most young Taiwanese graduates work at the minimum rate, which is not even survival salary if you live in downtown Taipei unless you live with your parents and don't pay rent, most companies will pay you the minimum for foreigners (around 37K), since most likely this is going to be your first job.

Most companies in Taiwan are family owned SMEs with much room for improvement in their managerial processes but with owners too proud and too successful to accept any constructive criticism, so you can expect some clashes, cultural and otherwise and a tough climb through the corporate ladder. I'm granting you the assumption that your Chinese is better than the average and that you can communicate clearly and effectively in the language, if not, add more difficulty to your situation. Some companies are better than others, and you might be lucky (as many including me have been) if you land a job in one of the tech powerhouses, but even there, there will be challenges.

If you are more of a entrepreneurial spirit the start can be even more challenging, establishing the company is hard, learning the business culture is difficult, managing the regulatory requirements is a pain, but in the long run what I've seen is that people that had managed to at least keep a positive cash-flow in the companies they have built are overall happier with the careers they've built for themselves and can have their families better shielded from the most uncomfortable aspects of the life in Taiwan in comparison to the ones who work for someone else.

Bottom line, don't stay for the sake of staying, if you have a plan, a dream to fulfill and one step for that dream has to do with you staying in Taiwan longer, then stay, if not, review your plans to see if you are better off relocating, even back home, ask for people from your country that had already been back for a couple of years, find how they are doing now, and start networking with them, you might be surprised to see where their careers are right now, remember the job market is about supply and demand so think about where are your skills more scarce and go there.