On the 10-year anniversary of my first trip to China (or, this means I'm really old)

崩溃了。Collapsed, exhausted. That's how a lot of us are feeling after intense work shifts during the peak application season. Some updated official stats on the top-volume NIV processing posts came out recently, and the top four are as follows:

1. Guangzhou (they process all dropbox renewals for China)

2. Beijing

3. Sao Paolo

4. Shanghai 

(can you see a pattern here?)

Shanghai is still the most efficient post in the world, calculated by number of windows in operation per hour. Right now we are seeing mostly students - going to college, grad school, high school. From my literal window on the world, I see the most popular majors amongst Chinese students being Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Business. Every so often a liberal arts major like History or International Relations makes a fleeting appearance. And then there are the kids whose parents are plunking down 一大笔钱 for a "summer camp" of dubious quality that promises life-changing cultural exchange and improved English ability (not to mention a huge profit for the organizers). 

And yet, 10 years ago, I had an actual life-changing cultural exchange teaching English in Hong Kong with a program of extremely inexperienced but extremely enthusiastic and loving teachers. Some of you reading this helped send me there back in 2003. The trip confirmed that I wanted to be involved with China for a long time, that I wanted to find a way to serve that wasn't teaching English, and that international living was a lot of fun.

This weekend I actually reconnected with one of those students from HK who just graduated from college and is taking a last hurrah vacation before starting a full-time job (photo from 2003 below). She was passing through Shanghai, and I invited her to brunch at my friends' house. What a surprise to find that a chapter of life that was gone and rarely thought of was actually still present today. It was a nice visit and a good opportunity to look back and consider the last decade. Maybe one of those kids in the school polo shirt at my window today will go to an English camp, catch a vision of a wider world, and take tiny steps that lead to a vastly different future.

Thank you for sending me on those first steps. I don't know what the long-term goal is, and I don't know what even the next year will look like. What is the best purpose of this 4th China chapter? Is it a time of waiting and preparation, or is there something important to do right now? How can one know and be sure? But thank you to every single friend who has sent a letter, made a Skype call, or prayed ever since the first trip ten years ago. This world is too big and transient and troubling to make it on one's own.