Paul Sayles

BA in History San Francisco State University. 31 years combined, Marine Corps, Army and Navy service. A third generation chief petty officer now retired from the Navy Reserve. Presently working in the hospital patient safety arena. Principle interests are Naval and general history along with classical music and music of the early '60s. I also like some of early 20th century British poets with a nautical theme, along with the writings of Rupert Brooke, Douglas Reeman and Alexander Kent.

My goal of a lifetime is to visit Newfoundland and to just sit on the cliffs and watch the waves from the North Atlantic pound ashore will be wonderful. The isolation and fellowship with puffins and gulls will be a welcome purgative of today's rat-race society. What better place to sit and read a book that is an old friend? I may like it so much, I want to stay there, I'll have to see.

In the meantime, other life changes have brought me from bustling California to a small rural city in the northeast corner of Honshu, Japan. Here I am working and living in a way that is totally different from the US and I enjoy it immensely. I can get measured doses of the US through work and SU news the on my tv. Otherwise it is all Japanese and I enjoy the immersion into the culture. I had to go to the US on a business trip and I couldn't wait to get home to Japan. Unlike most of my co-workers who are US citizens, I think of home as where I'm at and not fuss too much about things I miss in the US. At this stage of my life, I'll take takoyaki over a 'Big Mac' any day. On an almost daily basis I am learning more about my surroundings and the people I am with. Maybe looking at the waves of the Pacific Ocean, with my wife, from the cliffs overlooking it will suffice for the waves off of Newfoundland for the forseeable future. Time will tell.