Global Family

I was raised in a small northwest town.  My five older siblings went to the same schools I did, even had many of the same teachers.  I worked in the fields surrounding the town, helping with the harvest of crops.  Even though I lived sixty miles from the Pacific Ocean, I did not see it until I was twelve.  I left the U.S. for the first time when I was twenty five.

My husband was better traveled, attending high school for a year in Mexico City while his father was on sabbatical as a geology professor.  He traveled to and built a home in Mexico as a young man.  But, he wishes he had seen more of the world.

We wanted our children to be better traveled, fluent in a language other than English, and global citizens.  We placed them in a Spanish immersion school for twelve years and encouraged them to take advantage of opportunities to go to other countries.  We got our wish.  My children have been to Germany, England, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, Canada and Egypt.  All trips were related to academic learning and mingling with the local citizens.  And I know that they are not all that unusual today.

My children, at 23, 22, and 20, are more informed about the state of the world than most other, much older Americans.  They are rational, fair, and informed.  They are better equipped to cope with tomorrow's world than I could ever hope to be, if I started studying and traveling now.  I am proud of them, and feel good, with a calm certainty that the world is being placed in good hands.

I used to joke that my goal was to raise good, loyal Americans who obeyed the law and paid their taxes, but of course, I wanted more for them.  Now, I have that and much, much more.  I have faith in the next generation to do the right thing, to follow the Code of the West in dealing with the rest of the world, doing what is right and fair.

As I write this, my eldest son is in Florida, contemplating a business trip to Central America, my middle child, a son, is trying out for a pro soccer team in Barcelona, Spain, and my daughter is hard at work on her zoology degree in the next town.  Next summer, she will study in Oviedo, Spain, as her brother did.  In April, my Mexican niece will marry her Indian fiance in two ceremonies, one in Bangalore, India, one in Jalapa, Mexico.

Global citizens, global family, a small piece of a giant puzzle, creating the face of tomorrow's world.