Am I so blind?

A few days ago me and many of my colleagues received the news that some of us already expected: the company will not hire us anymore. That's something that could happen any time as I work through an agency, I'm not directly employed by Nintendo. As I tend to be a planner, I was already thinking about what to do once my contract was terminated and I think I am in a good situation; I've got a plan... This is being much worse for those colleagues who didn't expect it at all, got a shock and don't have much scope for action. Fortunately, that's not my case and for me this is the time to take action after several months toying with ideas about the near future.

Well, I will lose my job at the end of August. Since there is nothing I can or want to do to avoid it, I will ignore the problem and focus on the solution. Actually, the problem is not such, or at least I don't want to see it like that. (Note: I must admit that sometimes at this point the sentence "None so blind as he who refuses to see" comes to my mind). I think that it could be like that if I hadn't an alternative, but I do have it and I am very much looking forward to starting asap. I hope that my situation from September on feels like an opportunity to be free again and do something different. If there is a word that defines well what I have planned for the next twelve months that is "sabbatical". Yes, I've decided to take a sabbatical year to do something that I should have done long ago.

Since I arrived to Frankfurt at the end of March 2010 my life has been a blast full of fun, parties, journeys, laughter, incredible people, new experiences, euphoria, thrill and beer, lots of beer. You probably think that this sounds already quite sabbatical and you are right! That's why I will do quite the opposite for the next year. In fact, it will feel more like a Monday than a Saturday. As I am not going to have a job, I won't be able to keep the pace. That lifestyle is over and now I will focus on something much more practical: I'm going to learn German. Both if I stay in this country the rest of my life or not, the truth is that being able to speak German will be always something useful and we aaaaall agree that it is something I should really have done long ago, right? The parties and trips have been awesome, I regret NOTHING, but my brain is a bit rusty and this is a good moment to cut this life I have had since 2010 and re-calibrate again. I told you on some other entries that some internal and external changes were happening; now is when all those changes will become palpable. So the plan is just as it sounds: I hope to be devoted to learning German in intensive courses from October 1st 2014 to September 30st 2015. I hope to find something affordable that guarantees about 20h per week.

I want to take this experience as a prize, something that I feel like doing, a present for myself. I know that it sounds strange as a sabbatical year and the usual thing to do would be to travel around the world with a backpack, but that's more similar to what I've done so far. I won't deny that losing the job is a traumatic experience specially in the present financial situation and in a foreign country, but I don't want to take it as a drama but as another turning point (mmm... again the sentence in my head about being blind) and I've got the motivation to do it now.

This is not the first time that it happens to me and everything turned out very well after Oxford, Manchester and the months in the Persian Gulf. Who knows where all this will lead me.