“Why Document Your Thoughts” Kingston’s Journey Episode #75

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A Snapshot in Time

I was prompted by a mentor to remind myself on why I am on this journey, this less then traditional path. So on it’s 75th entry, what better time.

Well, it all started off way back when I was in Reno, NV, USA the night before my last day as an accountant in February 2019. Sitting on the dusty old chair I got from dumpster diving. I wrote the first entry of then called, “Kingston’s Journal.”

The few words I wrote back then epitomized my reasoning back then as it does now, 男人志在四方, a man’s ambition goes 4 ways. As in, I will travel the world and seize the opportunities I come across along the way so that one day, when I’m ready, I will take all I’ve learned from the 4 corners of the globe and bring it back home where I’ll synergize and utilize it as a well rounded man.

And I’ve been told that what I’m doing, moving country to country, continent to continent, makes no sense and can all be done from the comfort of the United States. I could, I would be missing out on the culture, sights and people. But generally everything else would remain intact.

This however, would defeat the purpose of why I left corporate America in the first place. As an accountant, I had everything laid out neatly in front of me. A good steady salary in a stable, well established position.

Again as I’ve said previously, when you are young, its not the time to go practical. Practical helps in protecting what you hold dear, but also sets a ceiling on what is possible. Going impractical by contrast unlocks possibilities.

A Global Eye View

Besides, there are things one can only be sure of if one has boots on the ground, namely these things are people, politics and property. This is the only time in my life when I would have the freedom to go impractical.

That impracticality has led to an interesting career so far (if you can call it that) including accountancy, authorship, academia, art and agriculture which I can speak intelligently on these areas from direct experience.

Additionally though, being on these different continents has allowed me to experience different realities and ways of thought, rather then trying to bring my upbringing along with me, attempting to fit in to wherever I’m at has given me interesting points of comparisons (to be touched on late). This has allowed me to observe that maybe my hometown of San Francisco isn’t that great.

There are kinder people, cleaner streets and overall better quality of life elsewhere.

Originally, I wanted to bring all this knowledge back to the US, but now that I’ve gotten a glimpse of greener pastures elsewhere these past 18 months, I’m not so sure I want to return.

So I suppose when you go out on a hunch and “just do it” that new point of comparison widens your worldly views and can break things wide open.

Kingston S. Lim

October 21, 2020

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania