Who I am and What This Is

Hello!

This site is the product of a late-20-something graduate student in English at a large and supposedly prominent (though I had barely heard of it before applying here) midwestern university. Having thoroughly exhausted all desire to pursue a Ph.D. in English, I am now searching for alternative plans. This site is about that search, as well as related issues, sites, questions, etc. I imagine someday (soon) I'll rewrite this little introduction to say how the search has ended. I look forward to that day.

For much of my life, travel and change have played a major role. Up until recently I was able to dubiously boast that I had changed living places (I wouldn't call them homes) an average of every nine months for close to a decade. During my life I have lived in six U.S. states (Wyoming, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, California, and Illinois) and traveled to numerous countries, including a month in Australia and nine months in Finland (as an exchange student). I have also biked solo and self-supported (as in pedalled, carrying my tent and luggage on the bike) through Europe "from the Arctic Circle (in Finland) to the Straits of Gibraltar (at the southern tip of Spain) -- a trip of over 3,000 miles.

Partially because of that experience, my first job out of college was with Backroads, "The World's Number One Active Travel Company." As a leader of high-end, weeklong bicycle and hiking tours, I've worked in California, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont. I fell in love with New England and I hope to be able to live there someday.

The many different lifestyles and norms I've observed and experienced in my travels and moves have shown me that, while there is no "right" way to live life, some ways are better than others. My life experience—added to three years spent in intensive study of U.S. cultural, literary, and political history—has led me to the conviction that humans are what Aristotle called zoon politican, or social animals. We need each other, and regardless of what pop culture tells us about our autonomy and individuality, none of us would be who were are today without the help and influence of other human beings (first and foremost, for most of us, our parental figures). Since our cultural mainstream tends to ignore or dismiss the extent of our human interdependence, my worldview puts me pretty far left of center. I hope to contribute to the conversation about important issues, and to offer another voice on the left to balance out the "war bloggers" and other libertarian and neoconservatives who have taken up the blog as their soapbox of choice.

I hope what you read here is amusing or thought-provoking. Most of all, I hope if you have any thoughts about what you see here, you'll let me know. You can reach me at: ai at mowabb dot com.

Posted August 9, 2002 09:55 AM | meta-blogging