Burned Out

This has been a strange few months.

I started this school year with a bang because I was coordinating a big project to give us inventory control of textbooks. That meant that I started tired. It was a lot of work. I generally try to push big jobs to either the beginning or the end of the year because I feel that it gives me more time to deal with students and the normal everyday grunt work of running my library. However, the textbook inventory program was a bear. It really took a lot out of me. Almost immediately after that I had to coordinate our Fall Fair. Then the main book order arrived and had to be processed. I am the faculty representative for the standing committee that deals with accreditation issues. I just finished being a chaperon to a group of middle school students on a week long field trip of camping and hiking.

It gets worse after the Christmas break. The school is moving to a new campus next year so I have to start managing and implementing the moving process not to mention doing the technical assistance for staging and construction for school concerts, plays and other performances. I hit the ground running in August and haven’t slowed down.

I realized somewhere about mid-October that I do not want to do this anymore. I am tired. I am tired of working from 7:00 AM until 4:30 PM or later, not including many Saturdays and eating lunch at my desk.

I am tired of dealing with children, who have had so many extra English, Math, Advanced Math, Really Advanced Math, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Violin, Piano, Russian, Japanese, Sanskrit and SAT preparation course or tutors that they don’t know how to play and be real children. I am tired of dealing with children raised by Filipino maids who are psychotic because they only see their parents once a month and have never been the recipient of any form of loving discipline other than bribes. I am tired of dealing with kids that are given more money for their allowance every week than Bruce Wayne could make in a month.

I am tired of the air-pollution. I am tired of having to listen to old-men yell into their cell-phones on the bus. I am tired of people farting in the MTR. I am tired of people who claim to be so busy yet walk so slowly on the street. I am tired of the vacuous TV. I am tired of the crowds. I am tired of the abysmal customer service. I am tired living in a cramped flat with no closets. I am tired of the noise. I am tired of smelling the polluted harbor. I am tired of having to carry an MP3 player so that I can tune out the surrounding environment. I am tired of having to pay a fee to listen to baseball via the Internet. I am tired of feeling like I have to be rude to walk down the street. I am tired of my upstairs neighbor’s karaoke machine.

I am tired of the paternalistic, do nothing, mealy mouthed government bureaucrats who are more interested in keeping their over paid jobs than providing good government. I am tired of bow-ties, crew-cuts, long hair and the broom head. I'm tired of Anson Chan and Nina Wong. I am tired of having to carry an ID card with my life history and finger prints recorded on it.

I am tired of walking by dried seafood stores.

I am tired of having Pakistani tailors wanting to make me a suit.

It would not bother me if I never see another mini-bus.

I’ve been in Hong Kong for 10 years and I am tired of it. I am beginning to wonder if it isn’t time to cash in and go somewhere else.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Thinks Mineral Wells is Looking Better All the Time