Changing my mind?

I believe to possess a healthy dose of stubbornness. But these last 3 days seemingly overwhelmed my healthy dose. I do think I may be changing my mind.

I wanted a free life. Moneyless life. Traveler life. A "pack-your-two-t-shirts, universe-contemplating, walk-when-you-can't-ride, destination-unknown" kind of life.
But the dark side is seducing me...

Approximately 69 hours ago, I was innocently chatting on the net, when all of a sudden my oldest brother tells me to pack up to go to fly to Austin as soon as possible for an interview at his job site. I had kept the impression upon others that I was moderately interested in applying for a job at Marcos' company, so as to keep people's expectations just high enough to keep them from bugging and pushing me into doing something "productive" for my life. But now I was called for an URGENT INTERVIEW with flight expenses to Austin and back completely covered by the company. What could I say? "Sorry, I've got a VERY important abacus competition on Saturday, maybe later..." But then they offered me a very short trip, just long enough for the required interviews to occur, to which I had no honest and reasonable excuse to use against.

So I flew... six hours after chatting with my brother, I was at the airport, boarding a plane to Houston, TX. I can't remember much about it. Two sleepless nights had sucked away my energy, and I just remember waking up when everyone was leaving the plane. The Houston-Austin flight was the same story, only shorter (though I wouldn't know... I was so deep asleep...)

Once in Austin, I was picked up by Carlos Luis Rendon (an ex-student and ex-teacher at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala whom I once served as teaching assistant but lost his students' tests so I was fired but he didn't remember about it so it didn't really matter) in his light blue BMW. I was taken directly to their office, and interviews began pouring in.

I was interviewed 4ice that day - mostly technical questions - data structures, algorithms, databases, and networking configurations. That night I slept at Marcos' apartment, and woke up much refreshed for my other interviews at 7AM the next day. Thrice was I interviewed that day (each interview was led by a different person), and two of them were mostly business-like interviews. No real technical chat here - but mostly "what are your goals?", "what would you like to work at in Reddwerks?", "How much do you expect to be paid?", etc... Despite all my hesitation and reluctancy, I believe it went out good. I expressed my concern and fear of being trapped working for a company for too long to several of them, and even so, they seemed to understand me and respect me for it. However, their arguments were subtly convincing. "You're young, you can save money now and travel later... Work here at Reddwerks is never boring... you're always doing new things...".

And that all sounds true. I saw the working conditions at Reddwerks. Liberal, easy-going, innovative, and fast-paced when needed. Honestly, a decent example of a technical developer's dream job. So why was I reluctant? Because, as my last blog will testify, my mind is set on what I believe to be "higher goals" than money, career, and job stability. I don't want to be an extremist, but I don't want to be one of the many specimens who worship the money idol above all other things. Or like those who feel cannot SURVIVE without their plethora of surrounding, luring technical and luxury commodities, like McFlurries, banana milkshakes, iPods, Big Macs, Coca Colas, and 6" and 12" honey mustard, spicy mayo, mozzarella and parmesan melted cheese sandwiches.

But depending on the offer, I might take the job. :O I know... I know... but it is A step towards independence. And that's one more than I've taken so far this year! Isn't that a good thing? I sure hope it is.

Of course, they haven't made any offers yet, but I'm about 85% certain that they WILL offer me a job with them. Will I take it? Will I take it? Will I take it?... Time will tell.

And then I came back to Guatemala at 1PM, had some lunch at home, attended the thursday afternoon abacus class, spent about 3 more hours with Kira's husband helping him out with his maxilofacial measuring and diagnostics system in Excel, and then drove back home along with Elisa. And now I write this blog which, finally, had something concrete to be written about.

Oh, and this saturday @9AM is my ABACUS YEARLY GUATEMALAN CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D I sure hope I win!!!!!!
(Yeah... I hope... 8-)

Antonio.