Tennyson's Ulysses meditates "All experience is an arch wherethro' gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move." Several years ago, I foolishly assumed that a year in Japan would cure me of my wanderlust, and that, upon returning, I'd be ready to settle down into my real life in the real world.
Like Ulysses, I've found that the opposite has proved to be true. My heart, like his, remains hungry no matter where I roam. I find that "I am a part of all I that I have met" and that immersing myself in "cities of men and manners and climates and councils and governments" somehow translates into a better understanding of myself. What better way to test one's metal than being functionally illiterate in the streets of Tokyo, or blonde in the Middle East for that matter? I've been the target of anti-American rants on German trains, dodged scams in Vietnam, swum under Costa Rican waterfalls, and headed into some of the hottest conflict zones in Israel to conduct interviews. Like Ulysses, the more I see, the more enticingly the horizon glimmers.
It seems more and more likely that my real life will take place in a real world far removed from the one most of my contemporaries inhabit. After earning a Masters degree in New York this year I hope to teach in Africa. I'm interested in adding registered nurse to my list of credentials in order to seek out posts in far away places that will place me directly in the path of new experiences and adventures. Teaching leaves nearly a quarter of the year open for such endeavors. "How dull it is to pause" indeed.
I hope to record here the things I learn in my studies and work at Columbia. In a broader sense, I hope this space will serve also as a means to reflect on my experiences in New York, and in whatever steps are to follow. While it will be useful for friends and family – there are still a few with energy and interest enough to try to keep track of my wanderings – I look forward to using it as a personal reference as well.
Tomorrow, I embark on my latest trip, to the City That Never Sleeps, the Capitol of the World, the Big Apple, and one hundred other trite epithets for the whirlwind city that will be my home for at least the next ten months. It's difficult to determine whether nerves or excitement are responsible for the rush of adrenaline that will no doubt keep me awake tonight. More than likely, it's both.
Ulysses knows that he is leading his crew to a possible sticky end. "It may be," he acknowledges, "that the gulfs will wash us down." Yet for him, merely breathing is not life, and despite the inevitable dangers ahead he embarks with the thrilling words: "My purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset… To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." I'll make that my purpose as well.
