People fascinate me in all their complexity. Have for a long time.
I was talking about exploring the world earlier with a friend, and I think I've always wanted to be an explorer. As a kid, I never wanted to play house or teacher. I wanted to play swiss family robinson, or jungle adventure, or pirates on a ship. I would have been, depending on the century, a pirate or a pioneer or a conquistador or in Marco Polo's entourage. But what part of the world is left to discover? Not much is unknown. The sea, maybe, which is why I thought about being an oceanographer in third grade. Or space, which I thought about in the later part of elementary school. When people try to help me figure out what to do with my life, this is usually how the conversation goes:
What kind of things do you like to do?
I like a whole lot of different things.
What kind of things are you good at?
I'm good at a lot of things.
Well, what did you want to be when you were a little kid?
An Explorer.
Huh.
Yep.
But by the time I got to high school I pretty much decided to study other cultures or people for the rest of my life. This was my reasoning: people are the last frontier. That's how I picked my major. And people fascinate me still. The old man that power walks in swim trunks by my house. The homeless, pregnant young woman standing on the corner. The jerk in the power suit in Borders. My closest friends. The so depressed musician in the non-Starbucks coffee shop. Baby Kadence. I want to ask them all a million questions. Find out what makes them tick. Or if they have any tics. It's a curiousity that never ends. And I love it.
I was talking about exploring the world earlier with a friend, and I think I've always wanted to be an explorer. As a kid, I never wanted to play house or teacher. I wanted to play swiss family robinson, or jungle adventure, or pirates on a ship. I would have been, depending on the century, a pirate or a pioneer or a conquistador or in Marco Polo's entourage. But what part of the world is left to discover? Not much is unknown. The sea, maybe, which is why I thought about being an oceanographer in third grade. Or space, which I thought about in the later part of elementary school. When people try to help me figure out what to do with my life, this is usually how the conversation goes:
What kind of things do you like to do?
I like a whole lot of different things.
What kind of things are you good at?
I'm good at a lot of things.
Well, what did you want to be when you were a little kid?
An Explorer.
Huh.
Yep.
But by the time I got to high school I pretty much decided to study other cultures or people for the rest of my life. This was my reasoning: people are the last frontier. That's how I picked my major. And people fascinate me still. The old man that power walks in swim trunks by my house. The homeless, pregnant young woman standing on the corner. The jerk in the power suit in Borders. My closest friends. The so depressed musician in the non-Starbucks coffee shop. Baby Kadence. I want to ask them all a million questions. Find out what makes them tick. Or if they have any tics. It's a curiousity that never ends. And I love it.
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