Time for a Head Check

As of now I have less than 3 weeks left in China. Quite honestly, there isn’t much going on lately, at least not in a “wow…China” sense. Most of me is biding my time until I can go home and just be thankful for what I have. However, all of this extra time has given me a chance to think and really see things from a different angle.

For those of you who don’t know me, I read books like an addict chases after a fix. At any given moment I am usually making my way through a few different books at a time, and researching the next stack to add onto the mile long list of books to come. In the name of this sacrifices need to be made, usually either my social life or my studies. I think I am finally learning that I can’t get all I want to know from a book. Instead, I have really been taking time and sitting down with my new friends while I still have the chance too. Normally I think of social situations in terms of gain, not in a literal material way, but as something that needs to be done efficiently, in a timely manner. Now, I am just happy to drift without expectations and my heart feels that much warmer for it. I’ve been in and out of a lot of social circles, especially over my college career, but I feel like for once in my life I am meeting genuine people that I know I will hold dear despite the distance we will face in the future.

As well as my social development, I am seeing my intellect grow in new ways. As something of a novice intellectual, most of my brain power goes into analysis and hoarding knowledge, never quite engaging with it. On top of learning language in China I have started taking up the Violin. Both of these pursuits take strong intentions of brain power in the same fashion as I am used to, but instead my mind is stretched towards more functional purposes; creating instead of analyzing.

This place, in this time, is one of a cheery limbo. I have time to breathe and think about my life. I am leaving this place of foreign adventure, but I’m not quite home yet, and as much as I miss it this is time to really look at things from afar and remember both sides before I go back.

Hey, everybody! My names Liam, and right now I'm living a dream that I didn't think would come true. I am living in China, studying at Nanjing University for a full ten months. Don't ask me why I wanted it so badly, I've just always been drawn to the culture. Europe sounded too comfortable to me, and there are so many chances for growth and adventure in this country. As for me I like finding a good adventure outside of the mainstream, having a challenge, and reading a few books (at once) when I get the free time.

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