Dollar and a Dream

Hello everybody, it's bee such a long time since I posted. Some bits are missing, but I was starting think about my life so far. And I hate this city sometimes. But I've made it to New York, to a job, an apartment; to something resembling a normal life again.

Only soon after I left Toronto, had I realised that my original path to Berlin was only the beginning. I did Berlin. I loved Berlin... and here's the kicker that few people know about. I even got a job in Berlin. YES, against all odds and beyond some hater's expectations, I was offered a decent paying developer's salary in a very cool area of the city. But as I held the contract in my hand, ready to sign, I was still gripped by something. This unimaginable rebellion. Something that let me know that this wasn't enough. I left my job and apartment behind in Toronto for a reason. Was it the drudgery of Toronto culture? wage slavery? Was it that I'd had a chance to live and work abroad before, but I missed it? It was all those things. But something else gnawed at me at that moment. If I signed that contract, I would be living and working in Berlin - brilliant. But I was feeling London as well. And I would have to wait until holidays to go to Spain. I'd have to work somewhere to get the money to do all this.

I wasn't ready for full time work. No no no - what I mean is that life is about these full human experiences, like traveling, writing, loving. To be stuck in a job for nine-tenths of your productive life IS insane. It's about time. I mean your time is your life. My time is so precious to me that it was worth doing something big to own it. How could I own my own time? How could I have money without having to work my life for it? I held that contract and the last remaining bits of my sanity and swore to finish what I started. I wasn't going to go half way and just get the nice location. I was going to get the CAPITAL!!!

That decision forked my life back to London, back to Toronto, and just before going broke, to New York City and a job. I've been all the way around the world to find what I needed. But the world was not enough - it's only part of the plan ( sorry, I had to!!! ). Within the first month in New York, I was crunching numbers on multi-unit apartment buildings in Harlem and Brooklyn. After 2 negotiations fell through, I came across a beautiful 6 unit building in Brooklyn Heights. Even at a 17% vacancy ( I take the top floor ), this thing was a cash cow.

( to be continued... )

Posted by Timothy Washington on 2005.12.10 | Original post

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