Vicissitudes and Victories

A Cosmopolitan Family

I have always wondered if the world really is getting smaller as the exchange of information becomes easier and economies become more connected. Today I've started to consider my own family as a prime example of how much easier it is to connect with other parts of the world. I grew up mostly in Idaho and I have spent the majority of my life in an area I affectionately call the Jello belt (named for the Mormon population that lives there and this population's strange affinity for Jello). Until I was almost twenty I had never ever been west of the Mississippi, and neither had anyone in my family except for my father and mother. Yet in the time since then, I have spent two years in Peru and I shortly am leaving for school in Illinois. My brother spent a couple of years in Taiwan, and my little sister has spent two separate semesters in China teaching English. If a small-town family like ours can send people to such far-off places, I think that the world is becoming smaller and more approachable for all of us.

posted by Joel @ 10:35 PM