Global Awareness

So, I'm not feeling the bloggery these days. But, instead of blogging for the sake of blogging, I've decided to paste one of my business school application essays from a few months ago. I was looking at it the other day, and it struck me that it reads like one of my less rantish, halfway thoughtful posts (and it got me admitted so it must not be complete rubbish) .

The topic was "Global Awareness" and the limit was 500 words. And, for the record, this is not fiction.

Here we go:

I was born in the charming little university town of Aachen, on the Western border of what was then the Federal Republic of Germany. Though I lived there for only the first three years of my life (and then for another when I was seven), I have many happy memories of the place, most of them involving snow, my yellow tricycle and smiling, round-faced Germans – a complete antithesis to the commonly portrayed stark, stern and mechanical people we often associate Germany with.

My parents and I moved to Pakistan in 1984, and I made the transition from modern Western life to the bustle and disorder of a developing nation quite seamlessly, as three-year-olds with little or no interest in a world beyond their parents' presence often do. I spent my formative years in the fifteen million strong metropolis of Karachi, rushing from education-filled mornings to lazy afternoons and evenings spent playing cricket or soccer. Life in Pakistan is generally quite laid back, and though the standard of living is low, I feel that the quality of life is relatively high.

Having a connection by birth to Europe, I always followed keenly developments – both political and sporting - in that part of the world. A combination of aware parents, access to abundant reading material and news sources and an interest in matters international inevitably led me to learn lots of about the world I live in. Pakistan's perennial status as a pariah bothered me, because I knew, and I still do, that the country has a lot of good in it, and is just unfortunate enough to be hijacked by the power-hungry few who happen to be selfish, righteous and wrong about almost everything all at the same time.

The United States always struck me as being a big bully. So, it was with some degree of cautious excitement (if there is such a thing), that, at the age of twenty, I made my way across the Earth to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Here, I discovered, as any frequent traveler could have told me, a nation of wonderful, generous, friendly and caring people that is just unfortunate enough to be hijacked by the power-hungry few who happen to be selfish, righteous and wrong about almost everything all at the same time.

I have enjoyed my time in the nation where cultures and countries come to meet as much as, if not more than, I have enjoyed my time anywhere else. I continue to make an effort to build bridges both by sharing my experiences – through presentations, essays, letters and discussions with friends - and learning from the experiences and knowledge of others who have seen much more than I have. The world, for better or worse, is becoming smaller day by day and I believe that each of us has a responsibility to learn about and appreciate the qualities of every race, religion and nation.