YouthInAsia

Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 5:11am

It’s been 18 days of wandering around the same country, the same culture, the same chaos. It’s a new year but not much else has changed. Second impressions have quickly progressed from nostalgia, to excitement, to ... Nothing. An odd sensation, for sure - realizing you feel most comfortable surrounded by neon signs you can’t read, conversations you can’t understand, store names you can’t pronounce. It’s a bit of a topsy-turvy feeling that shifts, flips, twists and shakes up everything you thought you knew about yourself and the world. You start to feel a little disconcerted, too complacent, almost too at home amongst everything unfamiliar ...

And youth in Asia, eh? With Korea, there’s the critics – the “What are you running from?” guys, the “Hopping on the Korea bandwagon, I see?” people, and the “Why don’t you give it a go in Canada?” mentality. And you know what? You’re all right. It probably is unoriginal. It probably is career suicide. It probably is some form of procrastination. All duly noted.

Or maybe we’re the smart ones – doing whatever’s in our power to suffocate the urge to be sensibly irresponsible, somehow still being mature enough to acknowledge accountability for our own lives. To dodge the “mid-life crisis” we all seem destined to experience by confronting it when we’re merely mid-way. To nip it in the bud. To live now, for fear of rolling out of bed one day at fifty and wondering when it all will start. A solution before the problem. Maybe.

Time is always the best judge.

In the meantime, there’s this:
The Flaming Mountains, a Gobi desert range over 50 miles long that glows various shades of red and orange in the daylight. There’s desolate, windswept pockets of Kazakhstan, ghost towns full of people grasping and clinging to any ounce of modern civilization. There’s stretches of derelict road with lush green scenery and nothing but wild herds to dot the horizon.

There’s a whole world out there.

The more planet I see, the more panic – there really isn’t enough time [or means] to see the whole damn thing …Life is short. Do your thing.

And remember: “Happiness must be shared.” – Alexander Supertramp [Into the Wild]

Susie Mowers
Seoul, South Korea
January 2009
Written about 8 months ago ·

Comment
Julie Diamond
Excellent excellent excellent! Well said Schnookums.
January 24 at 10:26am · Delete

Pam Ginger Hamill
youre on a great start to see whole planetbe happy doing what you want to doit is, however, the one and only chance you have to be susie mowers!♥ ... Read More(never stop writing)
January 24 at 12:53pm · Delete

Jennifer Healy
Susie! This was amazing!!! So well written...you must be an English teacher....I hope you are getting everything out of EVERY experience possible!! Cheers to living life!! xx Jenn
January 25 at 4:11pm · Delete

Derek Stefanovich
hey susie your life seems more interesting then anybody i know,the things u do and the places you go so amazing,well written and well said!
April 15 at 2:16pm · Delete
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