A New Country

These all died ... not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles ... For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had the opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country ...

Who has written this quote? Is it perhaps an Iraqi refugee, a Lebanese person who lived close to Israel, a Palestinian? Is it perhaps the youth of the suburbs of Paris, who feel like strangers to the point of rioting and destroying their own neighborhoods? Is it perhaps the working class of the U.S.A. who aren't sure what Medicare and Social Security will be doing in 20 years?

I guess all of us feel like strangers and exiles at times - abandoned by our leaders, our options, our families, our bodies. Yet here we are. Sometimes the better country we seek is the country we are still in, and we long for it to transform into a homeland, a place we belong. In my life, as an American, I feel overall as though I am valued, I am educated, I am fed. This is my homeland. So, I want to go help others feel more like that. I can't do it all at once, so my aspirations for the coming years are to empower the Chinese university students in their English skills and show them how it can affect the rest of their lives. Now, who will feel more like a stranger in that particular situation is another matter :)

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