2011: Year in Review

I returned from my South American adventure in December 2010 – over one year ago. It’s been nearly as long since my last update, but given the symbolism of a new year, I it would be an appropriate time for a moment of reflection. From the onset, Margaritaville has always been about achieving a certain state of mind rather than a physical location. Acts such as sojourning or traveling may help you get there, but it’s also possible to find it through random acts of kindness, eating a delicious meal, finishing a great workout, kissing in the rain, or in my current case, engaging in intellectual pursuits.

After two years of professional work and spending a year abroad, I have decided to return to school. Working so closely with university students for the last few years made me realize how much I missed the academic environment. Every time a student would complain about a reading assignment or a demanding professor, I would become nostalgic about my undergraduate years. I would literally long to be behind a classroom desk, and I found myself making excuses to audit or eavesdrop in classes. Even if I was just there for observation or moderating, I was literally trembling to keep myself from plunging into the class discussions myself. Although I would never classify myself as an academic, I will admit that I thrive in the classroom environment. I am an intellectual junkie, a consumer of knowledge, and over the last five months, I have had the pleasure of immersing myself in the realm of ideas at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE, pronounced hug-seeh). My experiences at HGSE and living in Cambridge warrant their own separate entries (which I hope to write in the near future), but in the interim, here are some highlights of my first semester:

1. My racial awakening: It’s a funny cliché that kids do all sorts of experimentation and identity searching in college. I have always felt very comfortable regarding my own sexuality, religion, morals, politics, values, etc, but one area that may have been underdeveloped has been my own ethnic/racial identity. I partially attribute it to growing in up in a white neighborhood and attending a white high school with white friends in Central Texas. Back in the days of Xanga and Livejournal, I remember writing some very embarrassing entries about my opinions on affirmative action and minority scholarships. In my efforts to be “race-blind” and judged on my “merits” (which I might add are not insignificant), I denied a very integral part of myself. Although, it took leaving the country and being consistently interrogated about my “etnicidad” for me to realize its significance, it has been illuminating to re-examine my own educational experiences through a racial/cultural lens. As a person who prides herself on an uncanny level of self-awareness, it is incredibly exciting and stimulating to have a new dimension to explore.
    
2. Relationship building: Although I have loved all of my college years and experiences abroad, one by-product of moving around constantly has been the difficulty of maintaining lasting relationships with people. I’m lucky to have formed some very strong bonds with friends from all over the world, specifically ex-roommates and mentors, but I do feel a tinge of sadness for all of the friendships I’ve let go by the wayside.  As a fairly independent person, I am especially guilty of losing contact with several of friends from college.  Recently, I have been trying to reconnect with old friends by unceremoniously dropping back into their lives years later. I don’t necessarily regret it, since all of the aforementioned experiences were formative to my becoming the person I am today, but honestly, I could have made a better effort to keep in touch. This time around, I wanted to push myself to meet new people and maintain meaningful relationships. It certainly helped that I had no prior connections in Boston, so I had to put myself out there, lest I become a misanthrope. It also helps that my cohort is awesome.
   
    
   
   
3. I got a haircut. Then I got a second one.
   
   
   
   I was perfectly happy with the first one, but I had the opportunity to get the Rihanna that I’ve so desperately wanted for the last couple of years. Plus, I was able to help somebody out in the process. Everybody wins.
4. Depois de cinco anos, por fim estou aprendendo minha terceira lengua.
5. Finally, I mentioned in my original post that among other things, part of Margaritaville was my search for love and romance.  I won’t spend too much time discussing it, lest my blog revert to a Xanga/Livejournal of my crappy overwrought poetry, but given how this relationship has etched itself into some of my fondest memories of 2011, I thought that it warranted at least a short shoutout. In brief, I’m in a relationship. He’s wonderful, and we’re very happy. You’ll probably hear more on that front when he becomes my travel companion later this spring, so keep an eye out.  

Finally, considering I’ve surrounded myself with a group of internationally-minded individuals, it was only a matter of time before I found myself headed abroad again. Incidentally, I am writing this post on an overnight plane to Morocco. We should be arriving in Casablanca in 2 hours. Check it out: http://chasingbrightspots.blogspot.com/

Given the wild popularity of this site (ha ha), it was only fitting that I would become a blogger for our team in Morocco. Oftentimes, in making polite conversation, well-intentioned people will hear that I am studying “Education Policy” and follow-up with asking whether I plan on becoming a teacher (Oddly enough, I got the same reaction when I studied English). I am hoping that Chasing Bright Spots would provide a better glimpse of the rigor and depth of what I actually study.

Whereas that blog will be more academic and education-oriented, I hope to maintain this site separately. Since it is unaffiliated with the university, and I am not representing any entity other than myself, I can provide a more personal, candid perspective of my travels here. Stay tuned!  

Freedom to Fail: A Global Perspective

Recently, I submitted a video entry to the New Threats to Freedom scholarship competition, in response to Michael Goodwin’s “Freedom to Fail.” He claims that “entitlement mania” will foster dependence and complacency in the United States, a topic of great personal interest, since I recently lived in a leftist country that most Americans would describe as a welfare state.

I have described my campus life in Argentina as “UC Berkeley on amphetamines.” Banners and posters decrying capitalism and demanding revolution adorned the entire building. Classes were regularly canceled for indeterminable strikes and protests. Whenever we did hold class discussions, the students inevitably defaulted to the government’s failures to solve x-problem, whether it be air pollution, traffic accidents, or obesity. A blatant example of this complex was the family that calculated that it would be more profitable to produce more children and receive extra government assistance than to seek actual employment. Nonetheless, it is interesting that for all of the rampant “entitlement mania,” Argentina’s education system did not exhibit the social promotion that Goodwin describes in American schools. Unlike the US, their test culture remains rigorous and demanding. Failure is not only the norm, but expected. These stringent measures ensure that students who successfully complete their programs are not just proficient, but experts at their subjects. On the other hand, having an unlimited fully-subsidized education allows students to fail with relatively few reprisals, aside from the tedium of repeating courses year after year. With little incentives (or alternately, little consequences), it is not uncommon for “chronic students” to spend as many as 10 years completing their education, while producing minimal social output in the meantime.

Obviously, the US will not be adopting that type of mentality any time soon, nor should we. I would suggest, however, that we turn our sights towards burgeoning countries such as Singapore or South Korea whose values may be more in sync with the American Protestant ethic. Unlike your traditional “up-and-comers” China and India whose meteoric growth can be primarily attributed to industrialization, these countries are already developed. Currently, they are experiencing surging entrepreneurship and social enterprise, especially among young people. Whereas the economic crisis in the US has resulted in Goodwin’s alleged “flat earth,” these countries are thriving with new firms and innovation.

My theory is that a major factor is the existence of a robust public healthcare system that balances reasonable price controls with private practices and individual choice of providers. Limited social intervention does not necessarily have to be at odds with individual freedom, it can also reinforce it. This safety net (literal insurance) would grant citizens the freedom to fail at individual pursuits without failing their livelihood.  For this reason (and please take note of the many conditional modifiers to follow), I believe that an intelligent, restricted social infrastructure with a very focused scope could be effective in motivating people to take more risks. Nevertheless, putting these measures in place will by no means guarantee success, thereby keeping the freedom to fail intact.

My full response video can be seen below: