Traveling and learning are life-long activities, and they go hand in hand. My journey with all of you has come to an end, but I assure you, your journey is just beginning! Just ten years ago, I was in your shoes. Like many of you, I had only been on a plane once or twice in my life. I loved the idea of traveling, but instead of getting out my passport and flying out into the unknown, I read history books and watched movies about other times and places in the world. Once I got to college, I made these dreams a reality as I ventured thousands of miles across the globe to visit my first foreign country— China.
Fast forward to 2020. The journey I have shared with you technically ended in July 2019, when I finished my research and moved back to the U.S. from Shanghai, where I had been living for a year. Of course, this was just a technicality. So much of my life for the past five years, from the first time I visited Beijing while in college to study Mandarin, to the most recent time I visited in Beijing, in January of this year to see old friends, has been spent in this beautiful and constantly-changing country.
I have been very lucky and managed to shape my academic career around all of my interests and curiosities. Studying anthropology as a PhD student lets me live anywhere that is suited to asking and answering my research questions by living with local people.
