Behind the Envy

Translated…

After my friend heard I’d gone to Puerto Rico, she’d become, more than envious of my lifestyle.  And she wasn’t, the first one who was.

A lot of my close relatives and friends believed, that after I got married, I’d become, even wilder, I’d always, smiled at their comments, thinking, if they are living in my shoes, how would they fare?

At the age of nearing forty, I’d gone to Norway to live, took up the language, and found a job.  Before I had the time to feel happy about that very first job, the financial crises came about, and, in six months, I was, laid off.  Later on, I’d interned for six months at a public organization, sent in endless number of my résumés, although I’d not cared about the positions, but, with my status as a newly immigrated person, and my age, clearly, it’d, limited the possibility of me, getting that dream job.  In the end, through the help of a friend, I was able to, transfer to work in a wholesales place, with great wages, and benefits too, but in the end, I’d had to, leave that post, because health issues.

As my husband saw how hard I’d had it, hunting for a job, he’d felt awful, and so, as I’d told him I wanted to become a SOHO, he was, more than supportive of my decision.  He believed, that our lives are easy, without children, that we can still manage, with just his paycheck.

Living in Norway isn’t as convenient as living in Taiwan, I’d mostly written my articles at home to pass the day, and because of the flexibility of my work schedule, when my husband found cheap airfare, and got his vacation time approved, I’d gotten the opportunity, to head out with him.  Traveling far off is the best time for me to enrich my life, to discover the outside world; otherwise, with my lifestyles, I’m destined, to fall behind the trends of now.

And because we’d not spent listlessly, we were able to, have more than enough to spare in the high living standards of Norway, and we’d be able to, travel three, to four times a year too.  Being a SOHO did NOT “make” me poor, instead, I’d gotten this enrichment of spiritual wealth from the travels and trips we took annually, and I’d become known as, what everybody else perceived as a “well-to-do married woman”.

Not doing well on the job in Norway had, accidentally given me the opportunity to start developing myself in the areas of my preferred interests, something I wasn’t able to do, back when I’d been, busying about the job.  Behind the envies from my friends and families, my life may be too bored for them to bear; no matter what kind of a life, there would be difficulties that others don’t know about, like the Taiwanese idiom, “You must be able to carry the stresses of being married to a rich man.”  Everything I’d endured through, is like drinking that water, only I know how it’d tasted.

So, don’t JUDGE people about how well they have it, by what you perceive on the outside, as you may NOT know, what the person had been through, and besides, everybody HAS her/his own fate and destiny, there’s no need, for me to envy you, or you, to envy me.