Posts Tagged ‘adventure’

Who is richer? A millionaire who has never left the continental U.S.? Or someone of the same age who has just enough money in the bank account for his next trip to his 150th country?

With the arrival of the new year, I am becoming ever more anxious with the upcoming decisions of graduate school admissions. Of the three rolling admissions schools, I have only received one acceptance, and agonizingly waiting for an answer from LSE and Sciences Po Paris.

Besides obsessively checking my email and logging onto my personal applicant space, I’ve also been thinking about how I will foot the bill of one of these fancy schools. The saying goes that if there is a will, there is a way. And that was the mantra I took to while applying to nothing but prestigious, and also expensive institutions. I thought, “well, if I get in, then I’ll find a way to pay for it.”

Let’s just say the process is more complicated and discouraging than imagined. Many of the scholarships and fellowships I have researched target toward citizens of developing nations and I can’t express how frustrating to be LIVING in one for past 20 months, working at the ground level, and still NOT be eligible for these awards base solely on the country of my passport.

The search of funding leads to bigger questions. Is it worth a big price tag to have an education that I’ve always dreamed of? Having debt already accumulated from undergraduate also sets me back quite a bit, and the question is, are the loans worth the experiences I had? Absolutely.

I was fortunate to have received several scholarships that funded my undergraduate education, thus most of the loans were to finance living expenses and the extensive travel that I did abroad. Sure, I could’ve been more frugal, eat a lot more ramen, traveled a lot less, etc., but if the world ends tomorrow, I will know that I have lived to the fullest and experienced all that I could within reason.

To what extent do we need to be “practical” and at what point do we “live in the moment” and seize experiences in the world? These questions have been circling my head with my time in the Peace Corps rapidly coming to an end, the next step dangerously close in sight, the future and that scary place that is modern society awaiting me.

I read Tuesdays with Morrie in one day this week. And this quote has been on my mind:

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Something to really think about.

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For years now, since Freshman year of college, I have been traveling. I haven’t spent a full year anywhere except for right now, where I’m in Cameroon, West Africa. My time in university was broken up between a summer in France, a semester in London, and another summer back in London. I thrive on the change and the unknown that each adventure brings. Today, in reading a blog post titling Change Love And Hate, I realized I am classified as a “change lover” – my mood oscillates between deep frustration and extreme happiness; I know little bit of many things; I have many weak ties and my spontaneity leads me to less informed decisions.

Many people of my generation, “the Gen Y”, are often globetrotters who thrive on exciting challenges of situating oneself outside of their comfort zone. Despite how globalization and technology is shrinking the world, it is still vast and presents endless opportunities. To me, the mere idea of “settling down” means forgo experiencing lives in other parts of the world. I once set a goal to live on all continents minus Antarctica (I was born in the tropics, not a fan of the extreme cold! ). This goal would have been lofty for many people of previous generations, but for us, it’s wildly attainable. I, myself, has already lived on 4.

I like the idea of experiencing a culture from a local perspective. That includes learning the language, mingling with locals, etc. Taking 2-3 week vacation somewhere would absolutely not allow me to experiencing new lives in my preferred method. That’s why “settling down” is so scary to me.

Fortunately, in today’s world, if I put my mind to it, I can absolutely carve a career out of living a few years in different countries around the world. I have done enough research to know it is very possible. However, my concern lies not within the professional aspect of a globetrotter, but in the personal.

The social aspect of being a globetrotting Gen Y is not as easy as it appears. Yes, traveling around the world puts me in contact with a variety of wildly fascinating people. Yet with each move comes the need to recreate a social circle from scratch. Since I thrive on change, that’s not much of a problem, albeit not always easy, especially with culture and language barriers.

My one and only concern as a globetrotter is whether I’ll ever be able to have a steady romantic relationship and eventually create a family. This is one issue I rarely see discussed in international career discussions. Does fulfilling my desire to experience the vast world mean I will have to forgo on lasting relationship and family? Are those reserved only for those who are willing to “settle down”? The difficulty is quite obvious. I am always on the move, and I meet people who, while share many of the same interests as a fellow traveler, are also on the move. Creating and sustaining a meaningful relationship with another person when both people are roaming around the globe is not so easy. With all the articles out there on managing an international career, are there ones that tell you how to manage a globetrotting career and also a relationship? Can I have my cake and eat it, too?

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I have been such a delinquent about this blog as of late. Not exactly sure how, but somehow we are at the end of September. A season in the Northern hemisphere where the leaves change colors, and the temperature turns colder – comfortable days that make do with just a light sweater.

Season is similarly changing here in the Southern hemisphere. We have reached the end of the rainy season. Along with the changes of weather, I am reminded that my time remain in Cameroon rest less than a year. And with that, I have begun thinking of my next step in the world.

About a month ago, it occurred to me that I would like to return to school and pursue a master’s degree. I have wanted to go back to school, but the idea was always pushed aside by the more logical side of my brain to first work and reduce some debt before I incur more. However, true to my “live in the moment” self, the knowledge-craving, adventure-seeking side of me won yet again.

Just like the way I let go of a potentially lucrative career to join the Peace Corps, I’ve decided to pursue a graduate degree instead of entering the “real world” and find a job that pays. And just the way I sensed my decision to join the Peace Corps, I feel 100% positive and excited about this decision. Now, I just have to get into a school.

The programs I have decided on are along the lines of international relations with emphasis on economics. Here is the shortlist and I hope I somehow get into at least one of them:

London School of Economics (Dual MPA in International Development w/ Science Po)
Science Po Paris (Masters in Economics and Public Policy)
Geneva HEI (Masters in International Studies – International Economics track)
Columbia SIPA (Masters in International Affairs)
Johns Hopkins SAIS (Masters in International Relations)
Yale (MA in International Relations)

Of the 6 programs, 4 will lead me abroad once again. London, Paris, Geneva or Bologna (first year SAIS). My heart is leaning towards Paris or Geneva so that I can continue speaking French, or Bologna so I can learn some Italian. With my experience, I am not the kind of language learner who excels in a classroom setting. But you put me in a country where they speak the language, and I’ll have it down within the year.

Anyhow, so that’s the plan for the next step in a nutshell. I am currently inundated with esoteric GRE vocabularies in order to retake the exam in less than a month. Knowing French better has helped me somewhat with these vocabulary words! Besides these obscure English vocabularies, I’ve also been getting into quite a bit of Latin and my desire to learn Spanish is growing steadily. We shall see which language makes the cut to become my 5th!

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Ever been in a conversation where everyone is speaking a language you don’t quite understand or completely clueless about? That’s me from the very beginning of life. Well, I suppose that’s everyone. But for as long as I remembered, I’ve found myself time and again in such situations. Frankly, I love it.

It began with the family from my father’s side who speak Hakka, a traditional Chinese dialect. Hakka is less prevelant on the island of Taiwan than the more popular Taiwanese or the official language of Mandarin Chinese. I was fortunate to have grown up in a family where many languages were thrown arond at all times. Besides the holidays, I am seldom around the Hakka-speaking family, thus never quite learned the language. Now living in Cameroon, when villagers speak their local languages, I am reminded of holidays spent in the Hakka speaking village in Taiwan.

Besides the Hakka family, I have a blond-hair, blue-eyed American uncle who paid yearly visits to Taiwan. While always amazed at my parents’ ability to communicate with my uncle in English, I had absolutely no idea what was being said. Yet somehow always conveyed perfectly that I would like my uncle to take me in his suitcase back to the USA and go see Winne-the-Pooh.

Fast forward to 1998 when I suddenly find myself in a classic suburb of USA during first day of sixth grade, knowing only maybe 60% of what is being said to me. Nothing to help a kid learn language when you throw them in a setting where he/she is the only person not speaking the language. No one wants to be the “weirdo” in 6th grade, so one learns at lightening speed.

During time in university, I traveled to cities were German/French/Italian were spoken and understood very little of it. However, knowing English helped me saved a group of Chinese tourists who were utterly lost while waiting for a night bus in Venice. They approached me with somewhat atrocious English, so I helped them out by throwing them the Chinese rope. So they could breathe comfortably and not drown.

Fast forward again to 2008 when I somehow ended up in Cameroon, West Africa with the Peace Corps, sitting in the living room of my temporary host family, understand maybe 10% of what is being said. They gave me strange food to eat, but it was easier to just eat it than use French to figure out what the heck it was. Just as I am grasping Cameroonian French, I get sent to a small village that happened to have French students from France doing their internships. I have lunch with them, and their French is something like a different language than Cameroonian French. Whoa! Once again, smile and nod. And of course it’s always a pleasure when village mamas approach me speaking in Batié trying to tell me something, and I seek frantically at any kid around who can translate it in French for me!

And this is where I am today. I continue to embrace all the situations where I understand nothing of what is being said. Being a polyglot makes me a curious wanderlust, always seeking for the next time I can understand absolutely nothing and be wildly amazed. Searching for the next stop around the world, one language at a time.

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