are we there yet?

when i was in houston over the holidays, raphael asked santiago and i an interesting question: where do you see yourself in ten years?

my main answer was: not here

it's kind of a disappointing answer really. i think when someone asks that question, they really mean to ask: what goals do you hope to achieve in the future? my answer was really just an expression of dissatisfaction with my current situation. to be honest, i find myself longing to leave every place that i stay long enough.

i'm not sure how sustainable it is to want to move somewhere else, work somewhere else, travel somewhere else, go to school somewhere else. not wanting to stay anywhere long is what prevents me from buying furniture. as soon as i bought a car last year, i was planning on how i would get rid of it if i decided to leave the country to travel. i don't know if i've ever felt like i had a permanent place in the world.

if you sit in a US airport for more than five minutes, you'll hear a woman from homeland security give you a color indicating the terrorist threat level for the day. the term homeland has always struck me as odd because i've never met anyone who referred to the US as their homeland. another odd thing is that i usually use US instead of America. if anything should be considered a homeland, it should have a proper noun for a name, not an abbreviation. there really is no country named "America". that's why i tell people i'm from texas instead.

another interesting question is: how did i arrive here from ten years ago?

probably the best answer is that i was trying to avoid working hard. i seem to have done well enough, so maybe not having any goals for the next ten years will work out just fine.