Happy Humpday Haiku #6

Pay Day

2 million Won.

Two, followed by six zeroes.

My self-worth? Affirmed.

            For the last two months I’ve been living out of pocket from the money I was able to save from my previous job in America, and slowly but constantly that money has been dwindling. For the last couple weeks, the foreign teachers were told we would either be receiving or opening a bank account, or getting paid (or a combination of the two. Furthermore, we were told last Friday we would get paid on Monday. On Monday we were told we would be paid on Tuesday. I’m pretty sure we weren’t told anything on Tuesday.

            Regardless, after roughly five weeks worth of work, it’s nice to know that the work you’re doing is appreciated. Obviously there’s more than one way to do that, eg. “Thank you, really, teacher, you have been doing a good job, really, a good job, thank you” At some point though, work becomes to be (a little bit) about the money. For me personally, money has never really satisfied any great feeling of self-worth. I find there are much more worthwhile endeavors than the pursuit of material possessions, or the attainment thereof. Not today. Today I felt like a king. And maybe that has something to do with the number: 2,000,000. It’s unambiguous and seemingly insurmountable. But essentially, the representative number is just an inflationary relation…until this time next month…