Recently I’ve been considering many options in my life. I feel as if I’ve come into a comfortable routine that, unless I break out of it, will be where I’ll remain for many years into the future. I’m not so certain that necessarily where I am is where I ought to be. Seriously considering joining the Peace Corps has been one example of my attempt to break out of this shell I feel solidifying around me. Because of this new train of thought that has occupied me for the last several months, I have begun to consider other elements of my life, questioning their appropriateness and fit with my philosophical, mental, and physical desires, abilities, and limitations. So I suppose it was inevitable that I should start considering whether or not Taekwondo, my steadfast art of the last five years, is really the best fit for me.
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Rome was at one time the Top Dog, the Big Cheese, the sociocultural epicenter of the civilized world. Yet in 476 A.D., it is accepted that Rome fell from power (although some theories state that Rome did not so much fall as it did slide over a period of several centuries). Why did this happen, and what can America learn from it? America is what Rome was - are we doomed to repeat history?
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Again, I met with Carmen (my PC recruiter) downtown, but this time at another coffee shop due to Muddy’s being closed on Mondays. My intent in speaking with her this time around was to glean a better idea on the culture in Uganda (where she served) and the rest of Africa, with the hope that her response would prompt me to add Africa as a preferred region to my application. She was successful.
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I’m going to go and see Carmen (my PC interviewer) again tomorrow evening to talk about Africa. I have so little real knowledge about Africa, except for what I hear on the news, that I’ve developed a rather biased and, unfortunately, negative view of the entire continent. Conversely, I have more positive feelings about Eastern Europe, although I think that’s primarily due to not hearing about it much in the news.

It all comes down to what I’ve been spoon-fed by the media, and frankly, I don’t really trust it to give me a whole, unbiased view of anything, really. There’s always two sides to an equation, and most of the time, I think, we’re only ever shown one side of it. Anyway, moving on…
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