Author Archives: Ben Maxwell

About Ben Maxwell

Over twenty years experience in creating, developing, and executing promotional and advertising campaigns across multimedia platforms including print, radio, digital, and social media. Broadcast radio manager, programmer, on-air talent/producer, and voiceover artist..

The Foursquare issue

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“When you and Jennifer leave Cayman, I’m gonna steal all your mayorships,” a friend said to me the other day.

“As you should,” I replied.

I wonder if Foursquare keeps a running list of all the Mayors of the various places that exist in their database? If they do, I hope they eventually would recognize your previous status. Like when you get elected to office and people have to forever call you by your honorific title.

So it would be nice to come back to Cayman in a few years, check in to Michael’s Genuine and see: ‘Welcome back Mr. Mayor, we’ve missed you.’ And then I’d get my iced Americano and sip it with the contentment that can only come from the joy of reminiscing through the rosiest of rose colored glasses.

Just like they have at Michael’s.

MGFD-scene

 

Thirds

Rule of Thirds

“Listen Ben… a third of the people you meet and interact with in life are gonna love you, the middle third of the people you meet are gonna hate you, and the last third could give a shit.”

Much like yesterday’s nugget of wisdom, this line, said to me around 1993 by an older radio dude in Washington DC has been haunting me.  It’s always been tough to accept that people didn’t think of me as anything short of fabulous.  I mean, right?!  I try hard, I work hard, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I guess I’m not at all like Seinfeld, of whom Alec Baldwin said, “Your life has been one unbroken boulevard of green lights, hasn’t it?”

I think I can add to the Rule of Thirds… let’s see if this works:

A third of the people you meet and interact with in life are gonna love you, the middle third of the people you meet are gonna hate you, and the last third could give a shit… and the weird part is that people jump over those lines to different thirds with frightening irregularity.

What do we think of THAT mind bender?

Cayman sunset

Waning moments

It’s in the waning moments that we realize what is important. And those moments can last forever.

The trick is to be observant and ‘in the moment’ to make any experience carry the weight of one that is waning.

One of my favorite professors of mine back at University started the second semester of Astronomy with some advice: “Be where you’re at.”  As I get older that statement has been ringing louder.  May you rest in peace, Dr. Hobbs.

There was a story on Lifehacker yesterday about why our morning commutes sometimes feel like no time at all has passed that struck home for me. During my first years in Cayman, I remember thinking that the weekends seemed to go on forever. Now I know why.  Read it.

It’s never as bad as you think it is and if you lie down or try and calm your heartbeats you can come down from the anxiety.

I’m going to try and be more observant of the moments we have left in Cayman and endeavor to write a little more about the process of moving.

I love you all.

The island of Grand Cayman, a British dependency that covers 76 square miles (197 square kilometers) in the northwest Caribbean Sea, is visible in this near-vertical photograph. Geologically similar to The Bahamas, Grand Cayman is a low-lying, limestone island located on top of a submarine ridge. The city of George Town, the capital and chief port of the Cayman Islands, can be seen at the southwest end of the island. Grand Cayman’s 7-mile beach can be seen on the western side of the island. Photo: NASA

Here’s the thing…

There is so much I’m going to miss about living in the Cayman Islands that is kind of creeping up on me. I should have known it would happen.

Let’s go back a few hours…

A good friend of mine recommended to a college friend of his that she get in touch with me because she was going to be on-island for a visit.

So she did, and last night she and her friend took a cab up to our place and then we went down the street to a lovely 4th of July Americana party with some other friends of ours.

Follow?

Ok, so we’re all hanging out at this party and we mention that on Fridays we usually go to Camana Bay and hang out at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink. It’s been our home-away-from-home practically ever since they opened. We love it there. I should say now that we’ve been there so many times it’s obscene. The staff knows what we like and hardly even have to utter the words, “Iced Americano, black.” before someone says to me, “Want your coffee, Ben?” Truly a “Cheers” moment. I’m gonna miss that.

So Jenn & I walk in at around 3:30pm and over the course of a few hours, some other friends come, eat, drink, chat, and go. One friend hangs around for a while so we can catch up. During that conversation, these friends-of-a-friend visitors come in and Jenn entertains them while I continue BSing with this other dude, periodically waving hello to this person and that person as they walk by and the manager of the restaurant, the chef, etc. I’m gonna miss that.

Dude finally takes off and she says something like, “Do you know everyone here?” I say, “It’s a small island.”

The night goes on and I stop to chat with a dozen or so people as we meander thru the Camana Bay Paseo, catching up, answering, “Hey are you guys moving?” with “Yep. To Seoul, South Korea…” “We should get together before you leave.” “Absolutely.” So many random people all congregating in one place. And it could have been practically anyplace on the island at any time. I’m gonna miss that.

It’s not the place in and of itself. It’s the community. So while it’s not the Cayman Islands itself, it’s the shared experience of the bootcamp that is the Cayman Islands and based on a predisposition to life abroad, in a foreign land where people just happen to speak English that makes Cayman special. I’m gonna miss that.

Another person I know once said… “Grand Cayman…. twenty-two miles long, eight miles wide, inhabited ’round the edges, soft and squishy in the middle.”

I’m gonna miss that…

Ben & Jenn @ The Cayman Cookout 2012 after watching our good friend win the competition!

Six years, eleven months, twenty-seven days

The total number of days between Monday, July 24th, 2006 and Sunday, July 21st, 2013 is 2,554 days. This is equal to exactly 6 years, 11 months, and 27 days. 2,554 days is equal to 364 weeks and 6 days. The total time span from 2006-07-24 to 2013-07-21 is 61,296 hours. This is equivalent to 3,677,760 minutes. You can also convert 2,554 days to 220,665,600 seconds.

This will be the amount of time I’ve spend in the Cayman Islands.

Here’s the first picture I could find of me in Cayman, taken my second day on-island.

CIDL 2006

CIDL 2006

I didn’t waste any time getting stuff sorted.  I thought that Cayman would be my new home and I would be able to settle down, and hey, they’d get rid of that pesky rollover policy before MY seven years elapsed.  Right?

I mean it sucked that some people had to leave, but the government would eventually see that replacing one expat with another would lead to a talent drain, like my friend Alan Markoff wrote about in the paper.  Right?

One of the the major goals of the Term Limit Policy is to guarantee first preference for a qualified Caymanian worker to do a specific job.  The way I see it, the work permit process itself is designed to handle that. Why kick someone off the rock just because time has elapsed?  If they can do the job better than anyone else regardless of nationality, and their company wants to pay for their work permit, then what’s the problem?  Everyone wins.  The safety valve is in place and we’re all good. Right?  As recently as the last elections cycle in May, the public and government seemed to feel that the policy was having a negative effect on the economy as expats with disposable income were leaving and not enough people were arriving in the territory to fill those jobs.  Add to that some of the financial services companies didn’t want to have their workers take a one-year break when they were generating revenue.

Yeah, not so much.  Rollover continues to be in play despite much talk ‘on the marl road’ about it being summarily expunged just like Bermuda did when they figured out it didn’t work.  People continue to leave.  It’s a fact of Cayman life.  My first month on island I went to three farewell ‘dos.’

So my/our seven years is up, friends.  Time to make like a baby…  I’ll miss this rock terribly, it’s been my home and I do love it here.  It’s not perfect, and I’m sure time and the human brain will do it’s thing and those down moments will fade away and only the happy memories will remain…

Like some of these…

Ben & Jenn @ The Cayman Cookout 2012 after watching our good friend win the competition!

Ben & Jenn @ The Cayman Cookout 2012 after watching our good friend win the competition!

Ben & Jenn on a boat trip on 2011

Ben & Jenn on a boat trip on 2011

Before it was the Cayman Cookout, it was the Caribbean Rundown. Also at the Ritz-Carlton. We attended the Gala Dinner and it was amazing.

Before it was the Cayman Cookout, it was the Caribbean Rundown. Also at the Ritz-Carlton. We attended the Gala Dinner and it was amazing.

Guy Harvey, Jenn, & Ben at what would be our last Pirate's Week, 2012.

Guy Harvey, Jenn, & Ben at what would be our last Pirate’s Week, 2012.

An upcoming post will get into where’s next for the wife and me…

Because I do this for the Compass...
Editor's note: This post has been changed from the original for clarity