this seat is taken

To Myk,

Escape and make it happen!

                                     Myk

This is what’s exactly written at the last page of my volume of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I remember writing it after reading the first chapter of the novel, mainly because I had an intuition back then that this is going to be my book. You know, the kind of book that epitomizes what you’re going through at the moment. That book was it, I told myself. The aspiring artist, his despondency, his struggles. The idea that I can somehow escape too from the chaos around me just like the protagonist comforted me. Somehow, I know, there is going to be a way out.

Almost a year after reading the first few chapters of the novel (I am halfway reading through it at the moment because of too many priorities piling up in a grown-up’s world), I find myself in the same predicament – I am losing interest in my job, everything feels like a routine, and what I dread the most is, I am certain that this is not the career for me. I won’t be delving into the reasons why because I plan to post about them when I have successfully escaped from this corporate zoo. All I can say is that, I have learned all the survival skills in a chaotic place like this.

I took that photo of an elephant in a zoo a couple of years ago. I placed that message on it to remind me that I need to fulfill those words I have promised myself a year ago. I don’t want to be that elephant growing old and weary. Most importantly, I don’t want to be stuck in this zoo.