Hello India!!!

Hello India!!!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Kia, you are going to go far

There are many people who believe in me. Along my 19 (almost 20) years journey of life I’ve had mentors, teachers, peers, family members, principals, counselors and friends who told me that I will go far in life. I believed them; the repetition of the fate they’ve assigned to me brainwashed me to believe I would go far. I was convinced that I will no longer have to live in poverty: no more welfare, no more thrift stores, no more divorces, no more hunger, and no more misery. I was going to go so far from that miserable hole of darkness.

I understood their reasons for saying I will go far. With my huge scholarship, fantastic grades, studious character, observant senses, patient heart, curious attitude, and thirst for knowledge and wisdom everyone knew I had the ability and skills to withstand this dog-eat-dog world.

I have come far, no doubt. Now I’m at the farthest point I can get from my St. Paul, Minnesota hometown. And yes I’m no longer the poor, helpless, simple-dreamer girl I used to be. At 11.5 hours difference between Central Time and Indian Time I’m almost exactly on the opposite side of this planet. They were right: I will and have gone far – so far away that if I go any farther than this I will only get closer to my starting point. Here in India there are thousands of poor, helpless, simple-dream girls. At one point in my life I could have and would have been wearing their shoes at this moment in time, but luckily I’ve come farther.

It finally dawned on me that physically the human perception of “far” is nothing more than just a word. How far is “far”? If we measure “far” against eternity then we fail to go far at all. I have come so “far” just to realize that I’m back at the beginning. In my small college town of St. Joseph, Minnesota I failed to notice that the earth is a sphere. We often talk about the spherical shape of the globe in geography and environmental science class but little were we able to fathom what its shape mean. We live in the circle of life that goes around and around.

In no way am I saying that I am back to being that poor, helpless, simple-dreamer again. It’s like the race-car tracks where you follow the same circular road around and around, but each time you go around you’ve finished a new lap. You learn the rhythm of that path because it becomes familiar. Perhaps this is just my first lap; I’m still learning the rhythm and pattern of this world. I’m still pondering on my most beloved persons’ words: Kia, you are going to go far.

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