Though the underlying reason has been in place for as long as memory serves me, I've very recently become enamoured with the 19th century. Free Kindle books have a great deal to do with the current infatuation, but the root cause is a desire to be where things are happening. Reading 19th century literature whether of the British or American variety you get a sense of America as newly born to be gargantuan in it's formative stages, just starting to find her place in the world. Everything was new and the possibilities boundless. The place these books takes me is a satisfying one whether it be aboard an American whaler, laying the first cable across the Atlantic or simply floating down the Mississippi. Now, if one were to read the tea leaves provided by our current zeitgeist, the 21st century it seems will find Asia the heart of that very same growth and dynamism. As to whether this will actually take place is too much for me to say. In the 1980s everybody seemed to be predicting that Japan would quickly overtake the US at the end of the cold war. That didn't quite pan out. The most common analysis says that ceteris paribus China and India will continue to rise and see America's relative standing fall over the course of the next handful of decades. However, if we are to take into account unforeseen circumstances as well, it is just as plausible that America may reign supreme at the head of the international system for another 50 or 100 years. Having personally accepted the concept of “not knowing” it's all fine by me (so long as there is peace and a continued rise in the American standard of living).
Traveling abroad is interesting, but America is where I feel at home. Ultimately there is no place I would rather be than traversing the Rockies one day and blasting through California redwoods the next. Oh, to wake up in a strange motel room to the sickly sweet smell of the Ozarks and a desk clerk's distinctly Arkansan drawl. But, there's just always been an insatiable urge to be at the nexus of things. Not necessarily controlling them, but to have been around it, to be a part of it. Looking at the world today my options seemed clear: go out and secure skills that will allow me to play some part in whatever history will unravel over the next forty years, or life unfulfilled. So here I am, in a 2nd tier Chinese city, a stranger in a strange land. Hopefully it will pass once school begins in earnest but often the feeling hits me while walking down the street “what am I doing here?” But though it may ever be so punctuated by these surroundings, that question has always been one ubiquitous to my existence. Now at least there's an answer: “fulfilling a vague dream”.
Traveling abroad is interesting, but America is where I feel at home. Ultimately there is no place I would rather be than traversing the Rockies one day and blasting through California redwoods the next. Oh, to wake up in a strange motel room to the sickly sweet smell of the Ozarks and a desk clerk's distinctly Arkansan drawl. But, there's just always been an insatiable urge to be at the nexus of things. Not necessarily controlling them, but to have been around it, to be a part of it. Looking at the world today my options seemed clear: go out and secure skills that will allow me to play some part in whatever history will unravel over the next forty years, or life unfulfilled. So here I am, in a 2nd tier Chinese city, a stranger in a strange land. Hopefully it will pass once school begins in earnest but often the feeling hits me while walking down the street “what am I doing here?” But though it may ever be so punctuated by these surroundings, that question has always been one ubiquitous to my existence. Now at least there's an answer: “fulfilling a vague dream”.
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