Thinking about the future

Some of this info is out of the bag to our family as of late, so I feel free to document some thoughts about the future that Nate and I have been working on... for what feels like a long time. There is no "news" to report, only our internal decisions about what the near future is hopefully going to look like for our little family of four. Of course, life has a way of changing our best-laid plans. So with those caveats...

We are applying for Silas's first passport. (First, for a trip to Canada on my parents' boat this August.) But really in preparation for a move abroad.

At this point, Nate has nearly finished his two-year Post-doctoral Associate contract. He has been offered several extensions on his postdoc, because he and his research partners are good at applying for grants to fund their work. He has also recently been offered a yearlong Research Associate position at Cornell, basically a promotion from the post-doc with a slight raise.

That Research Associate job represents a way to stay put for a bit longer in our lovely house, with our delightful friends, in a wonderful town, and (somewhat) near our beloved families; and for Nate to postpone "going on the market" (which is academic-speak for "looking for a real job"). It is possible that he could continue cobbling together positions like that beyond the one-year commitment, and we could stay at Cornell indefinitely with not much job security or upward mobility, but a fairly decent indication from his mentor and other research partners that they'd keep him in a job. [Sort of like what I do in my jobs, piecing together half-time, one-year or 18-month commitments from my Institute at Cornell with an array of freelance side contracts that I've developed over the past six years here in Ithaca.]

Trying to get a passport photo of this squirrely guy

As you can see, this Research Associate position for Nate was tempting -- but we decided to turn it down. Because that road is also an indicator that Nate is stalling in his career trajectory, which is a lost opportunity. At this moment and over the next year he will be at his peak "hire-ability" because his peer-reviewed journal articles will start getting published (Yaaaaay! This is a BIG DEAL in the academic world; it's basically the #1 measure of your value as a researcher). At this time, he also has amazing references from big names in his field, and he has the resources of his Cornell mentor and worldwide network of co-researchers actively working to help him find the right job.

So, now he is actively seeking a full-time, multi-year (or permanent) position with an international research institute, firm, or nonprofit organization. Mostly in Africa, but some job opportunities in Europe and Central America have interested us lately, too, so you never know.

But this decision is not only for Nate's career. It is also largely a choice for our family life. We have been debating a move abroad for a long time (Kathy would know, she has gotten an earful of my hemming and hawing over the past year or two), and this year we agreed: it is time. The kids are at a great age to do this. They haven't started formal schooling yet, and they are doing really well emotionally and physically -- basically, it seems like they would thrive on having this adventure with us.


And that is the goal: to have a grand family adventure. We want to find a situation where we can explore and enjoy a new country and culture together. We want the kids to have some of the experiences Nate did as a child -- living in a different culture, seeing the world beyond the U.S., and benefiting from the challenges and magical experiences that overseas living offers. 

For myself, I realize that it's never going to be easy to leave Ithaca, and that the longer we are here the harder it will be to leave. In terms of my own work, some of my freelance work contracts can come with me, and the network of people and organizations I work with now will still exist when we return in 3-5 years from abroad. But in reality, I'll mostly be starting all over again wherever we go. I have some skills that will be useful in international development circles and might translate into new freelance work (editing, writing, program coordination, communications/publicity). But I imagine that especially for the first year abroad I will be a stay-at-home mom, possibly doing some homeschooling, and definitely diving headfirst with the kids into the local social scene wherever we are.

The hardest part of all this, of course, is the idea of being far from our families and friends. We hope that wherever we end up it will be a place people want to visit, and that we'll have the means and time to explore and host.  

We have a lot to think about (e.g., do we sell the house, or rent it? what places are we willing to consider as destinations?), and of course Nate needs an actual job offer before any of this becomes real... but for us, the decision to wholeheartedly pursue this path has been made. It will be interesting to see where it leads.