I've been working as a computer programmer/analyst/project manager for almost 16 years now and I'm bored. I like what I do (most of the time) but I'm asking myself lately what it is that I really want to do. I've decided. I want to be a Samurai.
During my last semester of college I had to take one more elective course, and every course I was interested in taking was full, so my counselor, Sister Mary (I won't use her last name, yes it was a Catholic college, and no, I'm not Catholic), talked me into taking a Japanese film and literature course. Actually, there wasn't much "talking" involved...she registered me for it, told me I was taking it, and that was that. Nuns are very decisive.
Despite my determination to be obstinate, I fell in love with the course immediately. Never did I think of Samurai warriors and medieval Japan as being so romantic (yes, I saw Shogun as a child, and yes Richard Chamberlain was hot). I don't mean romantic in the gushy way, but in a beautiful, historic, respected way of life way...if that makes sense. I was enthralled with this part of history that I knew nothing about. I've been to Japan, and it is breathtakingly beautiful, but the stories of the Samurai warrior and their lonely, albeit exciting, lives made a huge impact on me during that class. So prodigious in fact, that I decided I would like to be a Samurai.
Though the Samurai way of life was once very noble and respected, there isn't much demand for them these days. There are no wealthy landowners who are looking to have their acres protected or poor villagers looking for a ronin (a wandering, lone samurai) to save them from evil miscreants who come to steal their meager dwellings and rice. I've read through the want ads, performed searches on Monster.com and Craigslist (I did find an ad for a Samurai on Craigslist, but it wasn't the kind of Samurai job I was looking for, more specifically, I wasn't the type of Samurai they were looking for), but alas, nothing.
Until I find a position as a Samurai, I have to be content with watching old Kurosawa flicks and refrain from committing hara-kiri. I suppose it's just as well. Samurai were paid in rice, and I'm trying to watch my carbohydrate intake. Sayonara ( さようなら ).
--Fortuitous Observer
