listening to John Bolton (former Ambassador to the UN) on the Daily Show just made me realize how much I secretly love IR. Or maybe it’s just the only thing that I can pretend to know anything about, thanks to four years of fake learning.
Of course Imagine by John Lennon is playing on Pandora as I start to write this… in a weird way, watching the Daily Show has been quite possibly the only thing that is connecting me to who I was a few months ago. I.e. someone who kept up with the news, who studied world affairs and was passionate about them and was concerned for humanity. It’s not so much that I’m not that person anymore, as that I don’t feel like I’m that person right now, because I’m not around other people who are like that, nor am I in any situation that forces me to think about those things. I’m hoping to regain consciousness when I move to NY and go back to school.
The same is true for generally not really living by my values, or at least the values that I feel like I’ve been sincerely trying to live by for the last few years. I’m not really around other people who are encouraging that… Not so much that the people in my immediate surrounds right now are discouraging that, but rather that no one is pushing me to practice what I’m preaching (in my head).
Of course, being in NY, I will be immediately confronted with all of the injustices that bother me. And I’m sure I’ll be back to my old neurotic self, who can’t spend less than 45 minutes in the grocery store (because I have to read all the labels on everything) and who can’t spend more than $6 on an article of clothing (because that’s the most anything costs at Goodwill).
I’ve managed to surround myself this summer with some of the beautiful things in the world… the Arkansas River Valley in Colorado, Chino Hills State Park in my backyard, birds outside my window and bunnies in my neighborhood… and I’m about to be submerged in a concrete jungle, surrounded by some of the deepest depths of human suffering and ugliness, disguised as feats of genius and conquest (of course, conquest tends to be inherently ugly). But there will be bright spots. That’s why I’m doing things the way that I am.
Somewhere over the rainbow….
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Disguised as feats of genius and and conquest…hm. I think you know what I would say here.
Although I’m the last person who would cite Ayn Rand and one of the many friends of yours who would point at the economic inequalities perpetrated by our fine market capital of NYC, you know, sometimes the good comes with the bad, too.
Thanks for all your comments on my thingy, Preet. I’ve noticed that yours has gone a bit quiet. Are you at Columbia already?