A wager

「置之死地而後生」。

I ended a "heart-to-heart" talk with Wanwan earlier and, in the midst of her preparations for an English Language test tomorrow, she took the time to help me sort out some issues I am facing now.

What turned up is that I have two goals:
1. Short term (2-3years): Stay in Taiwan
2. Long term (after 3 years): Be able, financially and otherwise, to fly around to also take care of my parents

So, along these parameters we decided to do a wager. Well, she suggested it, and I agreed, because we both agree that rationally we both have little chance of staying together, and if we were to do that, I must be able to stay in Taiwan for significant periods of time.

So the wager goes: either I find a decent job (with prospects of learning the trade) or get a position to study at Fo Guang University in the two months I am there, 24 Nov 2011 - 23 Jan 2012, or we would call it quits and I would return to my life in Singapore.

There is a very clear rationale here. And I think, in some sense, Wanwan is pushing me to decide what I want to do with my life. On top of that, I know that I need a decent income and career in Taiwan for my parents to accept that I would have to spend substantial amounts of time there.