that’s whacked

disconnected in a connected world

Wednesday, Sep 29. 2004  –  Category: ChinaBlog

I’ve had a lot of friends go into consulting & investment banking*, and always thought, hey it’d be kind of cool to travel all the time to different and exotic places.

Having seen one of my friends get posted to such “exotic” places as Maryland/DC, and St. Louis, I changed my mind on that part.

This morning over breakfast, I asked Poorna if he missed the states yet, and he said somewhat, and that he felt a little “disconnected”, which I think is the perfect word. Being in China for even a short time like 3 weeks, I already have started to feel somewhat disconnected… and I’ve got a good friend here working with me too. I guess I’m not the kind of person who can travel around the world for over a year and a half, or even just do a 3 month rotation here.

I’m having a great time here, and everyone has been really friendly, but there’s something to be said for being near family and friends. Even in this connected world of email, IM, and phone (heck, I think I talk to Wendy twice a day on average), it still isn’t the same. Well, that was an important lesson to learn, and while it was probably an obvious one, it’s also a personal lesson that I suppose each person needs to learn in their own time.

• sigh. I heard from one of my friends today that he had decided to go into investment banking. I’d had premonitions of this since he decided to go to business school, but it’s still sad nonetheless. The world has lost a great engineer (there’s no way I would have gotten into grad school if it weren’t for him… he kept me studying and working at the lab more or less diligently). Sendur, I know you’re reading this: it’s never too late to turn back to the light…. fight the dark side.