I don’t have any regrets about coming to Taiwan but sometimes, like today, I think, “What if I had stayed home and led a normal life?”
I guess the point is how moving to Asia has changed your life irreversibly.
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yeah occasionally and then I remember how cold and depressing British winters are. Plus I have a better standard of living than I would have in the UK. So all in all, whilst it ain’t paradise it’s pretty damn good
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My thought is how you can never really fit in with people from your home country and family unless they have lived in Taiwan.
No but I do have moments thinking what if you stayed in your home country and were not posting on forumosa.
We would miss all your threads. Once you leave the old country don’t bother trying to fit in with those you left behind.
Fit in with the locals where you are.
I learnt not to play the ‘what if’ game a long time back.
I’d be fat and totally boring, like most of my friends back home.
No thanks. I went camping last weekend and spent an hour in the dark next to a roaring campfire talking to an aboriginal guy who owns 6,000 ping on a mountain in San Xia about how he felt about the Japanese occupation and how they treated his people.
My friends back home don’t even bother asking my about my life here. They know better.
“What did you do this summer jd?”
“We spent the summer scuba diving and then went to Borneo on an ecotour of sorts, saw the dicknosed monkeys and the orangutans and then spent a night on an island watching mother turtles lay her eggs and then released baby turtles into the sea. I got it on video. Wanna see?”
“Hang on. Maybe later. I need to schlep the kids to summer soccer practice and then go to Walmart first and buy cheap meat and Freetos.”
[quote=“steelersman”]I think, “What if I had stayed home and led a normal life?”[/quote] Yeah, I sometimes think that, but the thing is, I started going off on impulsive tangents decades before I came to Taiwan. I’m no great adventurer; I just really know how to take a wrong turn. 
I’m sure I’ve posted the stuff below before, but I’m old, so I repeat myself:
[quote]You wonder how it might have been
Had you not cast your fate to the wind.[/quote]–Vince Guaraldi (music), Carel Werber (lyrics)
A great idea if one can do it!
Oh, Charlie Jack, can I please, please, PLEASE use this as my signature? Please? 
Oh, Charlie Jack, can I please, please, PLEASE use this as my signature? Please? [/quote]
Yeah, that’s a good one. 
I’d probably have a few more children, not necessarily to the same mothers as the others…
and I’d still be riding my old Ducati…
but maybe not own an apartment or two in Asia.
I think you would have three children with three different women.
Oh, Charlie Jack, can I please, please, PLEASE use this as my signature? Please? [/quote]
Of course! 
[quote=“steelersman”]I don’t have any regrets about coming to Taiwan but sometimes, like today, I think, “What if I had stayed home and led a normal life?”
I guess the point is how moving to Asia has changed your life irreversibly.[/quote]
funny you think your life on taiwan is abnormal? Since if you stayed home it wouldve been normal?
[quote=“tommy525”][quote=“steelersman”]I don’t have any regrets about coming to Taiwan but sometimes, like today, I think, “What if I had stayed home and led a normal life?”
I guess the point is how moving to Asia has changed your life irreversibly.[/quote]
funny you think your life on taiwan is abnormal? Since if you stayed home it wouldve been normal?[/quote]
Normal compared to friends and family.
I’d be working myself to an early heart attack. For all that I complain about the education system here, the kids are much, much more respectful than kids in Australia.
I also wouldn’t have met my wife.
As fucked up as this place can be, I’m glad I’m here.
GiT, my sentiments exactly. I often look back on various critical decisions I made - where I went to university, leaving certain jobs, leaving certain relationships (or being dumped!) - and wonder how things would have worked out if I hadn’t. Mostly, I think the alternative path would have been tedious or worse. For example, I used to work at British Telecom as a software engineer; by now, most likely, I would be a middle manager turning up to my desk every day in a suit, surrounded by 100 other anonymous suits, having meetings about interface specifications and communication protocols like it actually matters, getting pudgy round the middle, and praying quietly for an early death. I’m glad I ended up in Taiwan and can’t imagine going back to Blighty; it drives me crazy whenever I go back there even for just a few weeks.
A great idea if one can do it![/quote]
Ofcourse you can. Try this. Try the What if game, and don’t stop. You’ll see how futile it s.
What if I never came to Taiwan?
I’d have 3 kids with 3 diff. women?
What if I’d had 3 kids with 3 diff. women?
I’d be working very hard to pay them all, and possibly have a good job, lots of perks and a supermodel in my life.
What if I had a super model girlfriend?
We’d be holidaying in exotic places like Taiwan.
What if I came t Taiwan for a holiday with a fab girl?
I’d realize its a shitty place to live and raise a family and prosper.
OR
I’d realize, this is the place where I want to be forever and forever.
Continue the What if game. Don’t stop. You’ll see how completely futile it is. 
[quote=“steelersman”]I don’t have any regrets about coming to Taiwan but sometimes, like today, I think, “What if I had stayed home and led a normal life?”
I guess the point is how moving to Asia has changed your life irreversibly.[/quote]
I left Taiwan moved to the USA and have moved back to Taiwan. Being in the USA changed my life but thankfully I am able to live in Taiwan.
No point postulating on your circumstances. One should use the positive benefits of living in a foreign country. The opportunity to learn new culture and language.
[quote=“divea”]What if I had a super model girlfriend?
We’d be holidaying in exotic places like Taiwan.[/quote]
Indeed! My superhot, fashionista lady friend would grace not only the catwalks, but also the sidewalks, of such internationally renowned centres of style as Paris, New York, London, Milan and…Taipei. 
