另類美國夢
酷銳話題
作者：By Peter Rowan
Peter： Mary and I were thinking about buying a house that we really like. We were 1）anguishing over it about a year ago. It was a lot more money and we were thinking about the additional mortgage， and， you know， 30 more years of paying that off. We were just 2）speculating about what we could do with that money if we didn’t spend it， and one of our ideas was， well， we could spend a little bit of money making our house the way we wanted it， and then we could spend the rest on， for example， a year in Europe.
When I described it to people， it mostly sounds like a mid-life crisis， I guess. I’ve been complaining about the corporate career that I’ve had for years， for years and years and years， and I just couldn’t quite draw the line and stop doing it for different reasons， and then， finally， it just， this thing came up， and it was a good opportunity to step out of that. So， a year of not working and living in Europe is， is sort of like the big barrier between 18 years of working in that， as a corporate 3）weenie and， and then 18 years going forward doing something else.
It’s definitely a different， different life， but when I was working， I used to wake up every night at some point， or at some point during the day， just really 4 ）p a n i c k y a n d worried about what was going on at work and whether I was doing a good job， whether people thought I was doing a good job， you know， worrying about what was going to happen the next day and the next day and the next day， and we don’t have those worries anymore. I mean， we still worry about your life， your whole life， but you’re not worrying about someone else’s motivations， someone else’s goals. You’re worrying about your own. Josephine （Daughter）： Because he’s always at work and I barely see him. I…I think of the people at...at work that work with him see him more than I do， usually. But this year I see him the most I ever， I ever have.