I wake up every morning with a top bunk view of a wall-sized world map, certainly apt foreshadowing for what's coming in the next few months. It's been a few hours over a week since I've arrived in San Francisco, our program's point of departure.
It's a familiar place in my memories, from the early (playing Pokemon with my brother and cousin while out to dim sum with our family in Chinatown) to the mid (watching my uncle's house change colors from blue to yellow to pink over the years) to the late (Bi-Rite ice cream with friends from Brown at Dolores Park after a summer of separation). Now, there's more time to do San Francisco on my own terms: "Mission: Mission food" during lunch, running on humorously steep hills (this one literally has stairs on it?!), and seeing The Zombies (for free) at the Stern Grove Festival.
That is, when we're not in class or on a trip. It's been a while since I've had to follow this much of a schedule, and it does get a bit exhausting at times. We've had class, sessions to help us prep for processing and dealing with everything that's coming up, guest lecturers, and site visits. It's incredible hearing from people who are so knowledgeable and actively involved in issues that are infinitely more than just textbook content - issues that are of our problematic reality. I've already learned so much about communities, politics (and how I'll never, ever get involved with them), and how implicit philosophies play out in our relationship to the environment.
The privilege of travel has been on my mind, since the beginning of the summer and especially now again after discussing it in class today. This trip and all my Euro-hopping are things that are completely unimaginable for the majority of the global population. I ask myself, why should I be able to do any of this? Why do I have access to so many resources when too many have so little? What's the opportunity cost of these travels in time to devote to others, money for resources to those without, in carbon emissions from the sheer transportation aspect of it? Sure, I'm going to learn as much as I can about a critical global issue. But no matter how I think about it, I can't give myself an answer that I can feel anything even close to 100% good about when it comes down to it.
But as we discussed, guilt is only good for about five seconds. This in mind, I'll do all I can to give back when I am able. I hope that my life's work will do some good for someone. That I can make someone else's burden lighter, for my burdens weigh so little and I have hands to lend.
On a completely different note, it's been interesting going into this after four semesters of primarily math/economics/computer science coursework and a shameful lack of more liberal artsy classes. I can already see how that background's pushing me to ask so what's the answer? Where's that best solution? even when the answer is clearly not simple enough to be easily stated. I catch myself filing information away in terms of inputs, outputs, externalities, and cross elasticity effects (my environmental economics professor would be proud). I'm definitely enjoying this change of pace, though, and how much I'm adding to and questioning my viewpoints on things from the definition of wilderness to the commodification of natural resources.
The fact that I'm not writing about this until the end definitely reflects upon my tendency to float off into my own mental world, but I must wholeheartedly say that the people around me on this program are particularly wonderful and thoughtful. I haven't made this many friends in such a short period of time since freshman orientation. Here's to getting to know each other intensely through the highs and lows to come!
Oh, and I'm in love with San Francisco. We're childhood friends, but I feel like our relationship has really blossomed into something new over the last week. Yeah, I'm probably moving too fast, but I'm guilty of fantasizing about our future together.
More to come, including pictures which I've been lax about!
No comments:
Post a Comment