I’m attempting to post a blog from my phone for the first time. Probably not that big a deal, but a first for me. I’m visiting family in another city in Korea. My wife’s sister and her husband teach at another international school here, and have for many years. They are good fiends and mentors to us in our common work.

I always get away for a bit to have some bro time with my brother in law. He’s been in the big leagues of international education for his whole life. He graduated from a top tier international school in Seoul and has always worked as an international teacher or administrator his entire career. For someone like me, who has worked many different jobs and now works at a school that just barely qualifies as an international one, learning from his experience is quite valuable.

Tonight he told me he was recently at a gathering of a lot of other international school administrators in Japan, and like in any field they all shared battle stories. Some of these other folks worked for schools that were started and are maintained by the United Nations, and for him that’s his dream job. But, as they all shared he realized that all of them had their version of jobs that were greener grass, and usually at schools either directly represented at this meeting or schools very much like those represented. He came away thinking that what the reality is is that it’s all just a different shade of brown wherever you go.

I have to agree from my experiences as well. The grass is indeed not greener, as the old adage tells us. We just need to determine what shade of brown we can live with sometimes, or as I’d really like to think of it, the brown God has called us to make as green as we can. The ground is cursed after all, but one day it will all be made green again.

That’s it for now dear reader. May God’s kingdom come, and will be done on your patch of brown grass as it is in Heaven.