Airline-issue eye masks -- travel never used to be part of my job (except for a short period of monthly one-day visits). And I was happy with that.
But in 1995 my employer asked me to become expert in a new technology and join its technical committees. I had no idea what was ahead.
It took almost a year before the travel began, with a 1-day meeting of the main committee in San Antonio. Three months later I attended the 2-day kickoff of my ISO committee in England. (It's funny to recall now and colleagues laugh at the story, but I was so very stressed about that: "OMG, I am going to a really foreign country!"*)
It began to pick up after that, with the main committee soon going from one to four meetings a year (and from the original 1 day to as many as 7-1/2, though we're back to 4-1/2 days) and the ISO meeting 2 days each year with a different member country playing host.
A bit of travel but manageable and the formation of a third committee in early 2000 with up to four more meetings a year (usually tacked on to the main committee's meetings) didn't change it much.
But for me that all changed late 2000 whenI flew to Beijing to speak at a Chinese government committee meeting during a conference there. (I even had to get a suit for the occasion.)
Arriving jetlagged, alone in a country where I couldn't speak or even read the language, completely in the hands of my hosts -- I so much just wanted to be back home. But when I left ten days later I was sad: I wanted to see more and I was leaving new friends behind. (The book in our hands was a brand-new translation of this technology into mainland Chinese.)The annual international meetings continued, including Canberra, Seoul, Paris, Cairo and Key West among our venues. Kathy and her languages sometimes came with me; otherwise I was learning to manage on my own. (Herr Rose at Central Intermediate would not be pleased with my 30-years-rusty German.)
A few years later I started speaking at conferences domestic and international: New Delhi, Mexico City, Vienna... well, there's a lot more but you get the idea. I also wound up a member of a European manufacturer's association, thereby adding more travel and speaking engagements -- and more countries.
I think such travel unavoidably and irreversibly changes one.
In a comment to a previous posting girlsinger wrote, "Some told me they couldn't wait to leave [Midland] and some, like you, ... hoped to stay." Yes I did, and for a very long time, but I am not sure that's the case anymore.
Observing so many other cultures and learning a little of their ways, I started seeing the world, not to mention my own culture and home, differently. Today I might well be one of those who couldn't wait to leave Midland. And for all that I still feel most at home in the Midwest there are a few places abroad I would very much like to try to live, places to which I feel a significant affinity, even though they all require learning a new language. It is possible to do; Kathy knows Americans who "went native" abroad and remained.
"You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right." ~Maya Angelou
I thoroughly disagree. Though you can never go home again, you carry a bit of home with you forever. And if I were to go abroad to live in another culture and to learn new ways, a little bit of the Midland of old would go with me.
* The funny thing is that in rretrospect I think I was right. With that trip in 1996 as my baseline, every subsequent visit to the UK seems to show a culture not just sliding but almost in free fall, dissolving before my eyes.
ReplyDeleteA complete contrast to my many visits to central and southern Germany; an apparent stable and confident culture.
Your observations of the effects of travel on one's perception of "home" are spot on!
ReplyDeleteLiving abroad for many years has had its benefits, but also some drawbacks. For me, it was my loss of a sense of belonging.
I never really fit in over there, even though I learned their language and observed their customs - I never quite felt at home.
Our family traditions are what preserved something of home wherever we were. Trying to find a turkey for Thanksgiving in Belgium in 1960 was impossible, roast beef would have to do. A few years later the local market imported some for the growing American population and realized a tidy profit. I remember Daddy remarking that $50 was worth keeping the tradition - besides, we invited our Belgian friends to partake. Some still eat turkey - and charcoal grilled hamburgers, too!
Back to "home" - I have found that home is where one puts down roots, raises a family and connects with the community. For the time being it is the Pacific NorthWet!