Letters from Slovakia - Pre-Slovakia

So for those of you unfamiliar with my struggle, I am a former student of theater and writing, trying to find a job in either of those fields in a world and economy that is enduring Covid. Neither field in particular is hiring, and to tide me over until those businesses start to recover, I have decided to put my English degree to good use and start teaching English. I spent this past summer working for an English Second Language camp in the beautiful mountains Ukraine, and now I am about to embark on an eight-month contract as a full-time English teacher in a small city in Slovakia. Suffice to say, my brain is going through a lot of things right now.

I’m writing this mostly to discuss those things my brain is going through right now as I prepare to move from the woods and potholed wastelands of Northeast Pennsylvania across the Atlantic and to the rolling fields of Western Slovakia. For starters, there is a vague panic as I know that I urgently need to pack—But alas! Netflix added Seinfeld to their roster and I must watch it! There is no chance in Hell that I can pack and watch TV at the same time! Multitasking is impossible, I tell you!—and, of course, check in on my health with English-speaking doctors while I’m around them. But there’s more to it than that. Of course, I was excited when I left to work in Ukraine for the summer, but that contract only lasted two and a half months. It was a summer camp, by definition seasonal and short-term, with a fast turnaround of characters and intricate-yet-brief plotlines between the characters stuck in that turnstile—I’ll talk more about that in another article. But eight months. When you’re my age, that’s an eternity.

This job in Slovakia is an amazing opportunity, and will be a springboard for excursions across Europe. The geographical placement offers easy access to Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and my buddies back in Ukraine, and plane fares are surprisingly cheap to anywhere else in the Old World. Additionally, my grandfather’s family—the only side of the family whose specific origins I am aware of—comes from Slovakia, and the added ability to familiarize myself with the world of my ancestors is an immensely exciting opportunity. Everything’s coming up Steven right now, even if residency permits and visas are a pain in the ass and I have to take a break from watching Seinfeld in my less-than-ample spare time—Oh my God, Kramer just did something totally insane! That’s hilarious! Wow!—to pack up my entire life.

I’m not writing all this out to brag, but to document this time where I fully believe that I am entering a new chapter of my life, where I can find clarity. I joked to my friend earlier that this city in Slovakia, which is a small city, will be a perfect place for me to focus and write my Next Great American Novel, but that’s only a part of it. I’m establishing a new point of attack for this narrative that you all have been keeping up on: A young artist tries to make ends meet and, through the power of reader statistics and Search Engine Optimization, aims to still pay off his student loans, which are still hanging over his head. I want to reinvent this page, not only so I can spew content, but so I can tell a story to the people who are willing to listen. Also I really want to reestablish my audience because I’m gaining some strong opinions about Seinfeld and there’s no way in Hell I’m keeping those to myself.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you continue to do so!