Rewind

You may need to forgive me. My mind has been racing through stuff lately with everything that's happening related to the trip recently and I've been throwing stuff up here, but I'm not sure how coherent the Big Picture is. Things got a bit side tracked a few days ago.

After I put up my initial "Why are we here" post, which spilled pretty much what's been in my heart about where I stand and my future plans, I intended to follow it up the next night with a post along the same lines, but showing what's been in my head. Call it the reality to counter the idealism of the first post.

That was the post that blogger ate late one night, and by the next morning, things had so drastically changed and starting spinning out of--and, ultimately, back into perfect--control that I never got back around to it.

So let me try and back up a few and bring you up to where we're at now.

Knowing that I wanted to leave Chicago and ultimately head back to Michigan--yet with no major financial or other ties at the moment--it seemed like the perfectly logical time to spend some extended time abroad. Back in the fall, I took stock of my tasks and responsibilities at work and started eyeballing February/March as a good time to leave. I figured if I could just get through year-end tasks that generally spill from January into mid-February and shoot the gap before first quarter end rolled around, it'd be the perfect time to leave. It was still too distant and everything at the time was too busy and chaotic to start serious planning, but I kept that rough timeframe in mind. I also set a starting point: New Years.

As the holidays approached, I started talking it up to close friends and family and firmed up the timeframe. As soon as I returned from the Rose Bowl, I was going to start looking for a temp or contract job in Ireland and finding out what it was going to take for me to move there for 6-12 months. If nothing had come through by the end of January, I was going to put in a 4 week notice at work, be done there by the end of February, and leave around the 10th of March. Seemed simple enough.

Inertia can be a bitch. As excited as I was about this plan, actually getting my resume together and starting to find jobs took longer than expected. It was mid-January before I got anything sent out anywhere. I'd also had time at that point to research work permits a bit further and was dismayed to learn that you must have a job offer *before applying* for a work permit, and that it takes typically 6-8 weeks from the time the application is filed until it is granted. My timeframe was looking a bit rushed, and with a few other obligations on the horizon in mid-to-late March, I decided to push things back about two weeks.

All along, I knew I had the option of just going for three months and not worrying about work or permits. Visitors to Ireland from the US are typically granted permission to stay for up to 90 days with no additional documentation other than a passport. The thought was very appealing... Hanging out, playing music, hiking and biking through the hills, and just meeting and mingling with many wonderful people, completely carefree. I had crunched the numbers, and while it looked tight on the bottom line, I was comfortable enough with my conservative estimates to think I'd be able to survive that long without income and still have enough cushion to land on when I got back, though the prospect of an unknown duration of unemployment in Michigan afterwards was a concern.

My budget and Ireland's immigration rules agreed on one thing--without a job, 90 days was going to be the limit.

The planning for a three-month trip was minuscule compared finding work and making all the other necessary arrangements for a longer stay. I was tempted many times to throw in the towel and give up the thought of staying longer altogether, but I really detest the easy path. Most of the biggest and best decisions of my life have been ones where I've taken the more challenging and unknown route.

After pushing the time frame back, I kept hitting the job search sites and sent out some more resumes. I got a few nibbles, most interestingly from a large, well-respected US-based company whose EU headquarters happen to be in Dublin and who happens to have announced plans to be hiring in Michigan in the near future. I won't name names, but let's just say if you like to ogle, you might Go to their site. But nothing really panned out and I reached the point where I started eyeing February 15th as my cut-bait-and-take-Plan-B date.

As it got closer, I was really fretting about actually committing to the plan. All the work I'd done up to then... none of it was irreversible. I'd just been window shopping. I'd been talking it up a bit here and there, so I'd look like a chump if I backed down, but I had no chips in the pot.

I was also fretting because I hated the idea of "giving in" and going with Plan B, but Plan A was not looking too promising.

I was also concerned about how it would go over with my boss. He's been one of the greatest people to work for that anyone could imagine. I started with this company almost 5 years ago, and was employee #5. We're currently at around 20 and still growing. I've been highly involved in building up one of our biggest accounts, not to mention being almost solely responsible for another, smaller one. Though at the same time, I knew that I'd been hitting some big stretches of burnout and that it had to have been showing. As long as a year and a half ago, I had talked to him, hypothetically anyways, about possibly working remotely--from Michigan anyways. It'd gotten a warm enough reception, though a follow up conversation some time later seemed much cooler.

So, I knew that there was at least a glimmer of a chance that we might be able to work something out for me to actually stay with the company in some way, but it had seemed a slight enough possibility that I hadn't really spent much effort researching what that would entail from an immigration and work permit perspective. I was prepared to be parting ways permanently and yet was dreading actually doing it.

As the week of the 15th rolled around, I was hit with a nasty head cold and cough that forced me to stay home on Wednesday and Thursday. I dragged myself in on Friday for the specific reason of having "the talk", but was so out of it from the cold medicine that I decided I was in no shape to have a major, life-altering conversation with the boss. I knew there was a degree of anxiety contributing as well, but I let my "I'm not feeling well" justification stand up and put off talking to him for the weekend. We had the day off the following Monday, but on Tuesday, on my second trip into his office to try and broach the subject, I succeed.

He is a good friend as well as boss, so I wasn't too surprised by how excited for me he seemed to be on a personal level. But he is a businessman first, and a good one at that, so I really didn't know what to expect in terms of support and acceptance from the company side of things.

I was overwhelmed. We chatted for a long time about possible tasks and values I could add to the company while I was in Ireland, logistics that would need to be worked out, and what other options might be available such as a leave of absence. We kept things open ended because there were way too many variables and possible paths that needed to be looked into, but I walked out of that conversation feeling completely elated. The bottom line was that he admired and supported what I was doing, and he and the company would do whatever they could within reason to help me make it happen.

As this conversation sunk in, I realized just how deep the mutual loyalty between this company and its employees runs, and how sincerely I hoped that I could work it out to stay with the company during an extended stay abroad and beyond. It really would be the perfect situation.

But then I started tracking down what would be required from Ireland's viewpoint. At first, it looked promising. I knew that a work permit wouldn't be granted in that case, but there was information on http://www.movetoireland.com/ specifically addressing the situation and indicating that I needed to write a letter to the Dept of Justice - General Immigration Division and provide as much proof about the company and employment situation as possible. But what exactly would need to be in that letter, whether there was some specific permit of visa I was requesting, and how long it'd take before I'd even hear anything back were all huge variables.

As I finally tracked down the answers to each of them, and was hit with an additional bit--that I'd also need to demonstrate why the work would need to be done specifically in Ireland--I was crushed.

I started trying to re-invent the plan and the process, when in reality, it was now laid out perfectly clear in front of me. My analysis of the situation was partially correct, but had some huge flaws. Particularly where I stated "That's going to mean pushing back my timeframe somewhat indefinitely".

After a few follow-up conversations at work, it was now crystal clear what the proper path and plan was. It seemed so simple as it was right in front of me the whole time. Yes, for the moment, it is accepting "Plan B"/"the easy path". But maybe I was blinded by too much planning, as I somehow failed to realize choosing that path "for now" does not necessarily preclude a longer stay. And in fact, in many ways, will make it easier. I can only imagine that making contacts on the ground will be a much quicker and more productive way of trying to gain employment than sending emails from 3000 miles away and expecting them to land on receptive eyes. What was I thinking, to believe otherwise?

And, of course, a critical component of this as well, was knowing that I had my employer's blessing to continue to do so, yet with an open door to return if it doesn't work out, pending the company's needs at that time. I can certainly live with that.