Well deserved. It stood out to me how many people were there to support you and to share the experience of your play. I really enjoyed the story of Jerry and the comment on knowing the limits of your own expertise. I actually spent some time thinking about that at work today. Am I outside of my limits? It's something I see often on online forums, and probably more often than I'm aware of in the physical world. How am I doing? Good question. I am feeling the weight of opportunity. Last year I left my job/company of 6 years for a new role, in R&D, in an area of expertise that is new for me, and still involves managing people. It has pushed me to presenting to CEO, CFO, etc., across to other managers, and working with individual contributors. It's honestly been a lot and I'm not where I wanted to be a year into this role, but I think I underestimated how much growth would be required to do well in this role from my own perspective. Others have a high opinion of me though and are happy with the progress. My relationship of 3 years recently ended. There's a lot of thoughts I have on that one, but better for a PM, I think. Short story - I moved to Seattle very recently. First experience living in a "large" city. Interested to see how I grow with it. Edit: I reread this and realized I didn’t respond to “how” I’m doing but “what” I’m doing. Hm.
ButterflyEffect Thank you for responding. It’s been interesting hearing what is personally meaningful to different people. How do we even know our level of expertise until we are beyond it? Sometimes we stumble through, sometimes we have a mentor to guide us. A friend of mine with Parkinson’s was particularly happy for the MRI part. He’d had a lot of brain MRIs and didn’t know anyone else who had been through that. As for “how” vs “what”: it’s not so binary. Writing a message, reaching out, having a relationship, ending a relationship, going to work, moving to a new city: these all indicate GREAT functionality, living, struggling, reflecting, feeling. Maybe it’s not all whoop di do, but maybe there’s some of that — in the mountains, seeing a sunrise, checking hubski.
I'm pretty good. Limping my way through the end of grad school. Finding it difficult to plot my next steps because of how politically fraught I expect the future to be here in the states. Nice to have the option of working overseas, but I'd still be paying taxes back to the US unless I renounce citizenship, so maybe there's not too much of a point in leaving. And I'm not in a demographic targeted for oppression, so maybe it's my duty to stay here and fight the good fight. I'm considering ramping up a humorous anti-fascism influence campaign on YouTube. At least the audio will have some production value (robot/alien lyrics in the description). What kinds of hobbies are you up to?
You say, “There’s not too much of a point in leaving” if you have to still pay US taxes.” I thought the point was to get away from the political fraughtness, by which I imagine you mean the threats to democracy. Yes, yes, stay and fight: but it is depressing. As for hobbies, there is not yet a coherence to my life. David is doing anti-fascism work all the time working on US and local Canadian elections. I just got TheTalk to get involved. I know I should. Sigh
"TheTalk" got a good chuckle from me. Hang in there, I know the feeling. I've got some family up there, so maybe sometime we can grab a coffee if I'm ever around. Or maybe sometime we can liberate Key West from the fascist DeSantis. It's whatever. Take it easy, lil :).
am_Unition US citizens living abroad are obliged TO REPORT their income to the IRS. If they pay taxes in their country of residence, greater than they would owe to the US, then they pay NOTHING to the US. David has been an American in Canada for 27 years and has never paid the US a penny. This is an issue that Democrats Abroad has worked on and there’s a good chance that they will get it changed to residence-based taxation instead of citizen-based. Still, better to stay and fight.
Most people won't have sufficient income to be double taxed but it is a concern. From the IRS "If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude your foreign earnings from income up to an amount that is adjusted annually for inflation ($105,900 for 2019, $107,600 for 2020, $108,700 for 2021, and $112,000 for 2022). In addition, you can exclude or deduct certain foreign housing amounts" -- https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion In addition, while I don't know about Canadian banks, European banks don't like dealing with Americans due to reporting requirements set by the US government, so it can get real difficult to live abroad as a US citizen. It becomes a messy maze of regulation real fast.
Thanks for this, c_hawk! I'm super guilty of outsourcing research, both professionally and in my personal/hubski life. :/