I’ve been sick for the past week with a wicked cough and I think a sinus infection. By far, the worst part of being sick for me is when I lose my sense of taste. It’s incredibly frustrating. Whilst sick, I spent a good 2 days in the darkness of our apartment with our blinds closed playing my new favorite video game Monster Hunter Tri. It’s a great way to kill time when doing anything else makes you feel like passing out. So on the 2nd day of my Monster Hunter escapade I was tired of not being able to taste anything so I pulled up Google to find a good home remedy to get my sense of taste back. Apparently hard liquor can sometimes clear up your sinuses enough. So, I took a swig of 151 and it worked! I could finally taste! But about an hour later, when I had resumed my Monster Hunt I started getting the feeling that the monster I was hunting could be just outside the apartment. I assured myself that it wasn’t possible and that I was simply imagining it but the feeling was there none the less. That night, I had a very vivid dream that I was actually hunting monsters in real life and that I had made a pretty good living out of it. So this got me thinking that there may be some metaphor here that I can relate to how I feel about my job at English Village.
Lately, I’ve been feeling overwhelmingly frustrated with the Administration and the new direction that our President has decided to take things in. I have to admit that some of this frustration stems from egocentrism. The Korean approach regarding the workplace seems to be very top down. So when the president says we should do something, no matter how backwards it seems, no matter how poorly we all know it will work, we should do it. I really don’t like the “Korean” approach and I consider “western” ideas about the workplace to be much better. Communication among the directors seems next to non-existent. You’ve all heard the complaints before at this point. But I realized that what you guys don’t hear much about from me are the things that actually DO work. I spend significantly more time complaining than I do praising. Yet another source of the frustration, I’m sure. So whenever things seem to be going write, it’s a bit like hunting down a wily monster. Here’s one way to look at it;
When things are going well, keep things going! Once you’ve learned how to swing your sword properly and you’ve got the timing down just right, you can mow through a pack of Jaggis (think velociraptor) all day long. 
Just don’t get too comfortable cause you never know when a Great Jaggi (think T-Rex)
is gonna come along and mess you up.
Here’s another way to look at it;
Always be prepared! Before you go out on a hunt, you’ve got to pack for success. You want armor that will protect you from whatever attacks the beast may throw at you. If it’s a venomspitter, take some antidotes. If it’s a pack of Kindergarteners, pack some candy. The best way to bring down your monster is to know just what kind of monster it is. Be prepared to think on the fly though as you never know when that Quropeco (think big angry pterodactyl) is gonna drop in outa nowhere on you!
Here’s another way to look at it;
Sometimes failing a quest is for the best. Every now and then, you face one that’s just too big for you to handle and it all just goes awry. You place your traps in all the wrong locations, you throw your sonicbombs at all the wrong times and no matter how strong your armor is, that Gobul (think big angry stingray porcupine fish)
keeps smackin you with his paralyzing spiky tail. Time runs out and you just couldn’t hack it. You go back to the village with your head hung low and all you can think about is how much you’re NOT looking forward to heading back out into the Flooded Forrest again. BUT when you do head back out the second time, you now know all his moves. You know how to avoid the tail spikes, you know the places he likes to hide and you know his weak spots. This time around, you place your traps in just the right spots, you toss your sonic bombs at just the right times and just as he starts limping away you throw down that shocktrap you were hanging on to, toss a couple tranquilizer bombs in his face and you just tagged and bagged your first Gobul and get an even better reward for bringing him in alive! So when the President comes up with this great new plan for how classes should be taught and it looks and smells a lot like the Gobul we faced before, this time we’re prepared and know just how to bring this Monster down as quickly and painlessly as possible.
1 comment:
This is quite insightful, Kyle, and a good way to conceptualize your current job, and most jobs really. I have found it a myth that people are reasonable, or will act reasonable either in personal or professional life. Both are littered with obvious unreasonable and often stupid behaviors. It has never ceased to amaze me, and I have in fact come to expect it, rather than be surprised by it. We psychologists talk about "intervention strategies" when we attempt to deal with these, but they often go only so far. Try not to feel too frustrated. You get paid the same whether the president implements a stupid program that will bomb or a smart one. Your time there is limited and you will move on. He will have to live with the long term consequences, not you. I often have to remind myself of this as I watch a patient do something that I know will bring nothing but disaster. I can point it out, but people believe what they want, and distort reality anyway that is convenient, so generally it does little good. Only the wise listen to good advise, and there are few in this world who are actually wise.
Your Mama-in-law
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