The World Is So Much Bigger Now

Image via WikipediaI should have known better. I have a degree in modern European history. I read the economist and BBC news. I even spent a summer with a group of Americans in Greece and Turkey. But I thought the world was small. After living my entire life in the United States, having only a few foreign friends that weren't completely americanized, and having traveled little elsewhere, I saw the world through a distinctly American perspective. I don't mean to say that I am a gun-toting, McCain voting, heartland American. I'm from the San Francisco bay area. A political placement test I took in high school had me somewhere between Ghandi and Nelson Mandela. But here in London, studying at the LSE with brilliant people from all over the world and not being flooded with an America's-Eye view at every corner, I have found the World to be a much bigger place. Let's start with England - they don't have separation of Church and State here. Odd? I thought they were advanced. Perhaps there are more ways to go about things in an advanced world than I had previously imagined (though I still stick strongly to separation of Church and State!). I have met people here from Ghana, Nepal, India, Finland, the Czech Republic, and many many more places. And they all have experienced life in a different way than I have. And so have their millions of countrymen. The world is so much bigger now.