CCC Career Break- Dolphins spotted on M25....
Added to website: 05 April 2005
“Lets start with the facts.
I’m currently on an island called Qalito in the Mamanuca archipelago off the west coast of Fiji in the South Pacific. I’ve been here for three months. Prior to here I was on a small island called Santa Elena off the northeastern coast of Honduras in Central America. I was there for eight months. Just before that I was on the southern tip of the Yucatan peninsular in Mexico in a little fishing village called Punta Allen - there, three months.
Exotic, don’t you think?
Right then…. Prior to Mexico I was working in West Ruislip, London for an intellectual property rights software company directly off the A40. I forget if it’s the Target Roundabout or the one before. There are no mangroves there. Before this I was a director in a software business providing supply chain automation and streamlining process solutions to large global corporations. This I did from Welwyn Garden City, where the chances of seeing whale sharks I am reliably informed would be drastically improved by a freak geological event of immense proportions. This followed a sustained period of seven or so years working for various IT, networking and software companies. I never once got stuck in a jam on the M25 with a pod of dolphins on my journey to work.
Mexico was my career break - I decided to take three months out of the normal run of things and go do something less boring instead - for those that remember Why Don’t You, I salute you.
Before we go any further, relax, I’m not about to get too heavy, I barely know you. However I was 31 when I figured I’d earned a break - reputation intact, money in the bank, career path wide open should I wish to pursue it, opportunities available, that kind of thing.
Well the problem with being in a position to embrace opportunities is that they come your way and invite you to make a decision, and there really is nothing to stop you taking them. I enrolled as a volunteer on a Coral Cay Conservation expedition in Mexico as a way of indulging my passion for diving, doing something valuable and spending some time in an active environment. It was subsequent to this that I starting working for Coral Cay as a volunteer expedition leader.
Suffice to say the previous career path I had mapped is long gone - in most things you have to get current and stay current - that boat has sailed, a nicely apt expression as I look out on the two dive boats moored bow and stern that I am responsible for here in Fiji.
I work full time for CCC now as an expedition manager. I’m 33. I’m posted full-time overseas with the occasional break back in the UK. Some of the things I once felt were important to me simply don’t exist anymore: house, car, wallet, M25, suit, cuff links, Welwyn Garden City etc. Having said that I am sure Welwyn Garden City still exists, no offence meant Hertfordshire - however I am utterly convinced there are plenty who would join me in advocating the abolition of the M25.
I’m not talking about dropping everything, or doing anything drastic. It’s actually a lot easier than it seems to try something else for a bit. It was in doing something else for a bit that I got caught by suddenly being responsible for adding real tangible value to people, communities, reef systems and volunteers in my care.
Ultimately though the real value I am adding is to my own existence, not a bad result for simply taking a break, doing something less boring instead so to speak.
Why don’t you - That was a great programme huh?”
Richard Surma.
