Extra Credit Blog Post

During my time here, I've learned as much about myself as I have about this land and its people. I have seen both the beauty of the American polis and its dark underbelly -- from the great Cascades of the east and the Rockies of the West, to the Jim Crow North and the Ku Klux South, this land is divided, disjointed, and nonuniform in nearly every aspect other than the resoundingness with which every one of its citizens search for the truth that undergirds America.

Each one of the people that I have met have informed my perspective on the country, and provided insight into the diversity of lived experiences that constitute American life. I entered this nation rife with opines about the quintessential American experience, and I now leave viewing America with rose-colored glasses: I am wiser, more aware of the intricacies of life in a country founded the divisiveness of violence, and more receptive to the plights of those who are different from me. I leave with a sense of renewal, both in sense of self and in faith of the ability to continually discover and rediscover the meaning inherent to human experience.

In exploring the textures of maps and the land, I have dually explored the topography of human experience. I have come to appreciate the myriad of ways that humans move and their rationales for doing so. Just as one quest begins for personal gratification, so too does another begin as a soul-seeking mission, a flight from unsafe conditions, or a necessity borne of extenuating circumstances.

Under the pseudonyms of migration, refuge, movement, diaspora, or simply a road trip, the one factor I have found that unites these experiences is that near-universally the experiences engendered by the journey often eclipse the journey itself. That is, the meaning we derive from our journeys is oftentimes equally if not more important than the original reason we left. For it seems that even if we do not find what we had initially sought, or even if we do, what remains transcendent is what we learn about ourselves throughout. We learn that though we are different in more ways than we could ever know, we are bound together by the desire to explore the world alongside the most intimate aspects of ourselves.