Picture this, it's your first contract, you've never been to sea before, in fact you've never really been away from home before. You have a multitude of close friends at home who of are of course doing as friends should do and celebrating your exotic new job. I don't know you may have a boyfriend or girlfriend in the works as well. Now before you fly off to wherever your being posted you are totally committed to 'staying in touch' by way of postcards or Facebook et because of course these are the people who have helped build your life so far right up to this amazing new job. You might even be promising a partner that you won't 'do' anything while your away.
So you get to the ship, you start work, and you discover this gigantic new social atmosphere on board. You have a room mate who WILL see you at your best and worst, you find the crew bar, crew tours and activities in port, parties every other night, a whole new world has just opened up to you that you were totally un-prepared for. And to top that off everyone is living on top of each other (not literally but I will let you picture that for yourself)
To help me prove my point I'm going to use another example, getting ready to set the scene again....brace yourself.
One of the crew party themes is what we call a traffic light party. The idea is you come dressed in a certain colour that corresponds to your situation.
Red - not available, back the *#¥* off!
Orange - shy
Yellow - taken but probably still would
Green - come and get me
Now as you can imagine most people come wearing green or red, because let's face it who's going to expose themselves by wearing yellow....
However, it's my experience that 'yellows' are everywhere! For some reason people think that just because they're out in the middle of the ocean these things don't get noticed, well they do!! So freakin stop it you cheating, greasy, sleaze balls!!! This is a fairly big subject about ship life but in going to save that for another entry, just setting you up!
What today's is about is this.
On the topic of friendships, you have a few friends at home that you will always stay loyal to. The ones that are real friends you will never loose touch with, but it's a sad fact that about 90% of your social life on land will instantly disintegrate the moment you do a contract at sea. It only took me one contract and when I returned home everyone I knew bar 1 or 2 people had moved away and got lives, because while your away having the time of your life, you forget that life on land carries on.
And also, you will make amazing friends on the ship, however, since its a contract based job friendships on ships do tend to have an expiration date. If your lucky, you'll become good friends with someone who lives in the same country as you, but even then that person is not likely to be in an easily accessible location compared to yours. You might go and visit them while your off work, but its likely to only be once a year, if that. But I suppose that depends on the individual. I have made some fantastic friends on ships and to be honest you do tend to bump into people from past contracts a lot, after all we all work for the same company. Everyone knows the score when you make a friend, you may not be enjoying each others company for long, but it's better than being lonely. The same goes for a partner, you really think a relationship is going to survive while your only in the country for 2 months out of the year? No! And think about it on board, were all adults so fine, meet someone and enjoy each other but be sensible. Discus it. You either both agree that it's temporary and you just have fun with it, or you keep reading and see what my conclusion is :-p
Okay so here's my point, you still reading? Just checking..
I do believe the key to having a successful career on ships without forcing yourself into a life of loneliness, is to maintain a few good friendships at home because if they're good friends they are the ones who helped you get where you are. And at the same time have friends on board but dont get too close because its likely to be temporary. But whatever you do, do not fall in love with someone who is going to stay on land. You will end up killing yourself! I know you can't really control real love but if you do fall for someone on land, that's the end of your career on ships as far as I'm concerned. Ideally you'd meet someone on board and then you can 'link' which means get the same contract lengths and the same ships. I've seen many successful couples do this and I really think its the way to go. I've seen too many people get a relationship at home and spend their entire time on board pining for them. You still have to deal with what happens while your not on a ship but that's up to you to discuss really.
So to wrap it up, 'sail into the sunset together or you'll sink like the titanic'
Cheesy I know but it pleases me!
My life is awesome and everyone should do it :)
I'm loving it!
Until next time.....ciow xxx
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