I love language, and I love languages! The purpose of this blog is to provide me a space to play around with words in as many languages as I can (primarily Romanic, Germanic, and Esperanto), and to share my fascination with language - as well as to encourage myself to write more. So - join in on the fun!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Je veux parcourir le monde...

Every time I meet someone and they discover that I have never traveled outside of the United States, they are astounded. They cannot understand how someone with as much interest in culture, in religions and languages of the world, has spent his entire life in one country. Well, with the exception of one hours-long stay in Canada, back when US citizens could just walk across the border and back, it's true. To make things worse, I occasionally encounter someone who doesn't even believe that I'm
American. In their opinion, and perhaps in their experience, Americans do not study other languages. Americans do not really care about the cultures of people who live outside of their borders, and most of them don't even want to know much about the various cultures of those living within their borders either. For these people, I'm an enigma.

On the one hand, I feel very lucky to have grown up in the US. As a child in northern New Jersey, not too far from the New York City cosmopolis, I was always surrounded by children whose families came from other parts of the world. My closest friends were Jamaican; my cohort also included Haitians, Puertoricans, Colombians, Trinidadians, Poles, and many others. By the time I was in high school, my friends came from all over the world - every continent represented. Being the sponge that I am when it comes to cultures, I absorbed as much as I could about the places where these other kids were from, not to mention the fascinating mélange of cultures that influence American life. I feel very lucky, indeed.

On the other hand, my soul has always felt constrained with a fierce Wanderlust, together with a feeling of sodade for places that I have never physically visited in this life, but which feel every bit as real to me as the Atlantic coast I have called home for all my 35 years. Sometimes these feelings are so strong that I try to avoid discussing anything cultural with people I have only recently met. It's kind of depressing to be reminded that I haven't gone anywhere. It feels like I haven't done anything with my life, which isn't really true...but Americans tend to care a lot about what someone does rather than who someone is. We place a lot of stock in college degrees (something which I do not have) and professions, as though these alone define a person's worth. I suppose that I, as a product of this culture with all its benefits and its drawbacks, have internalized this notion as well, which fuels the feelings of inadequacy and failure.

In any case, I still want to travel the world. I want to go everywhere. I want to prendre un café in Paris. I want to sway to bossa nova in Rio de Janeiro. I want to browse in a souk in Marrakesh and eat falafel in Tel Aviv.

I want to do so many things! But I don't know how to make them happen. The business of "making a living" is always in the way. It's never the right time. I can't really afford to both take a trip abroad and  not work for the time it would take do it. At the same time, I am trying to convince myself that these are superficial excuses, and that I shouldn't hold myself back so much. I don't quite believe it yet, but I'm getting there.

Perhaps the first step would be for me to get a passport. I've never needed one before...but maybe if I actually get one, I will actually use it! I think it's worth a shot. The application is at home...


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