Half the Pay, Twice the Life
By age 33, I hit my stride. After smoking away my 20s in the delusional attempt to become a rock star, I decided to go to school and try. It wasn’t my first time at college; it was just my first time taking it seriously.
After graduating, I took a management job at a local restaurant. I quickly realized I wanted more and set my sights on Culinary School. I wanted to solidify my culinary understanding and make it official.
Two years later, I graduated from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) with honors. Armed with my two degrees, I set out into the world to find employment. The problem was, everyone in the culinary industry starts at below the poverty level. Some places offered to let me work for them for free, suggesting they might give me a job if I proved my worth in a few months.
One day, while searching the CIA’s job board, I saw an advertisement for the Seafarers International Union. A few years prior, I applied to multiple tugboat companies trying to work as a cook on them but couldn’t get hired because I did not have a Culinary Degree.
I sent an email to the recipient in the job posting, and thus began a long conversation with the now Port Agent in New Jersey.
I will never forget the first conversation. Here I was, making $12/hr, 70K in debt, and genuinely scared for my future. He said I would make around $9K a month as a Chief Cook and $12–15K a month as a Steward.
I barely made $1600 a month, so needless to say, I was skeptical.
This was the beginning of the most rewarding career of my life. I joined the Merchant Mariners in 2017. Since then, I paid off all of my debts, saved a ton of money, invested, funded a 401K, and traveled all over the world.
During one of those travels, I met my now-wife. Serendipity played a large role in that story. She randomly chose to come to Saipan for a holiday. I was stationed there during that time. We fell in love, traveled together, and now I live in China with her and our children.
This is where the story takes an interesting turn.
I loved sailing. It is my selfish bliss. However, it is very lonely. You spend your days on a ship with people that you barely know and most of whom you would not associate with outside of work.
Much like any job, you may or may not like your coworkers. Unlike other jobs, though, you do not get to go home at the end of the day, week, or month. This is the crux of the problem I faced.
I loved being at sea. I loved making great money and having lots of time off to travel. I did not love being away from my family and putting my life on pause for months at a time.
I looked around and saw that most of the “old-timers,” with the exception of a few, were divorced or never married and generally unhappy. I didn’t want to be that. I wanted to have a family, be a dad, be a good husband. How could I do that if I was off on a boat 6 months a year?
In May of 2022, I left the US for Turkey. I needed to receive the Sinovac vaccine in order to get a visa to visit China. At the time, my intention was to go to China for 6 months and then return home and go to sea.
My wife encouraged me to get my TEFL certificate so that I could teach English in China. She insisted that it’s the best-paying job in China for foreigners. I never planned to be an English teacher.
I am from the American South. We barely speak English. Grammar was always the bane of my existence.
Needless to say, I am not in the habit of ignoring the advice of my wife. She is much more accomplished and much smarter than I am. As the old saying goes, “hitch your wagon to someone better than you.” She insisted I get the TEFL. So I did.
Fast forward one year, and I am in my second year teaching English to 3-year-olds in China. I make half of the pay I did as a Merchant Mariner, but the quality of my life is much greater. I go home every day to my family. I ride a motorcycle to work, every day that I don’t ride a bicycle.
Hunan is where we live, and the food is incredible. All around, life is significantly better than it was when I was making 2 to 3 times as much money as a Merchant Mariner. I love the Seafarers International Union. I am still a full-paying member. I am proud of my time as a Merchant Marine, and the ocean still calls me like a siren song.
The beauty of life, though, is in the moments we live every day and who we share them with. At sea, I shared them with no one. I was a monk, living a repetitive life of work and exercise. As a teacher, my days are filled with laughter, silliness, and every night I lay next to my wife in our bed.
Cutting my pay in half was a terrifying thing to do. I had worked hard to hit the 6-figure mark and was proud of it. Taking the pay cut was scary but ultimately one of the best decisions I ever made.
If you are at a point in your career where you feel that something is missing, don’t be afraid to take the leap and pursue something new. You just might find it to be the most rewarding experience of your life.
If you are interested in becoming a US Merchant Mariner and the thought of being at sea for months at a time doesn’t scare you. I operate a blog with all the information you need. Go to Merchantmarinerguide.com and learn all about this exciting career opportunity.