By AMY WU
The fortune teller was right. Come Fall my fate would shift soil, and move from the East Coast to the Far East, or at least that's what he told the father asked about my future. Thank God for fate and for fortune tellers. As I write I am closing shop in the penthouse on the Upper East Side where I've been high-class squatting over the past year, and I am Asia-bound.
Here's how it all started. With the end of the job and the end of summer, the father called up the family fortune teller and asked him about my future. The fortune teller swore that in mid-September the stars would align, and the constellation would change. There would be a new season, a new beginning, and it wouldn't be here in the U.S. but someplace halfway across the world. Sure enough the phone call came a few weeks before summer's end. After sending out an e-mail blast to friends about my roller coaster year, I received a call from a fellow journalist who runs a journalism program in Hong Kong and Shantou, China. '"Want to come to China and check us out?"
At 34 going on 35, I had thought that I had outgrown wanderlust, and over the past year was convinced that it was now time to be a grown up and acquire a mortgage, a two car garage, a stable job, and maybe a couple of kids and dogs, and yes the minivan. Alas, that ended when the boyfriend walked out. So I thought about my friend's offer. Why not board a plane and head overseas, what's the worst that could happen?
As I write I am at a tiny tea cafe in Greenwich Village named "Thirstea," where I am sipping Bubble Tea in front of the golden cat with the waving golden paw at the window. I randomyl wandered into this place with shelves stocked with Asian snacks like Pocky sticks and rice candies. Hmmm, maybe it's another sign that the fortune teller is on the mark. With a plane ticket in one pocket and a passport in the other, I am ready to take flight. Let the adventures begin.
An intense, continuing debate for millenia is whether our destiny is determined by nature or by nurture. I say nature castes a framework for harvesting and the richness and details of the harvest is determined by nurture - our hard work, ethics, intgrity, and a committed, unwavering sense of purpose. Remember the F-cards, the "less is more" strategy, and how an upbeat, inspiring email opens the door to a new chapter for a young, budding, vibrant, energetic young person with talents that cut across the culture divide of the two biggest economies on the plant Earth... Go for it
Posted by: Joe | 09/25/2010 at 07:41 AM