A conflict of National Interest (part 1)

by Drew Wardle (United States of America)

I didn't expect to find United Kingdom

I am, by nature, a pessimist. In most conversations, I am cynical and my sense of humor is mostly deprecating. Having grown up in a British household in foreign countries, misery and rain did not fail to find me. But it is always tinged with a sly sense of hope and sarcasm and if I were at all lucky, wit. There is, however, one redeeming aspect to the overwhelming doom that I seem to share with many of my peers. In this particular instance, I am not a pessimist. I’m an optimist. In fact, I am so optimistic, some would say I am hopelessly idealistic. And that is humanity. I secretly love people. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said: “Treat people the way they are and they will stay that way. Treat people the way they can become and they will become that way.” And that is, so to speak, the way life’s worst miseries can be redeemed. Most of the time, being around people causes me great anxiety for fear of communication and not being able to do it properly. I have an intense desire to really connect with people and understand the subtleties of every mannerism and every word uttered. Sometimes I catch myself staring at someone, and have on some occasions, been described as weird. I find beauty in people. Whether it is their physical appearance or their mind. As the plane swayed back and forth, catching the ferocious power of the remnants of Hurricane Florence, the plane shot through the sky. I was sat by the window. I checked the map on the screen in front of me, and I saw we were just about a little more than halfway over the Atlantic ocean headed straight for the United Kingdom. I was with my parents, and were flying back to England for the first time in about 10 years. “Turn it the other way!” the station attendant barked at my dad, referring to the subway train ticket. My father being a sensitive man overall, shot the woman a very scathing look. Still, the card did not work after being delicately slotted into the ticket machine. “No other way!” Again, she barked like a starving dog. My dad became flustered, and my mom helped him. I, standing behind, could sympathize immediately with my father. I easily become flustered at the task at hand sometimes, especially when people are leering at me. “Mind your own goddamn business” is usually the first thought that comes to mind; clearly not very helpful. The reason why I mention this particular instance is that this is the first cultural difference I noticed immediately between the English and Americans. When we arrived in England, the attendants there are extremely helpful and very kind. Overall, there is less aggression and aggravation. There’s less of an urgency of time; it is OK, take a minute, breath, be kind to one another. Of course, there are exceptions to this. But, I have been around the block enough to notice that this difference is very real. One week later, I find myself in Cambridge, England. My oldest friend Loren is an Astrophysicist at the university. Another bout of culture shock! All of a sudden I am surrounded by intellectuals who are becoming the leaders of our world. Every now and then throughout our lives, we meet very important people. People who have an immense effect on our lives and change the way we think. It has happened to me a few times before. It happened to me again at Cambridge. His name is Christian, an English revolutionary at heart, who’s clearly transformed himself on many occasions. Once was a hoodlum and thief who started off stealing candy, and then graduated to breaking into and stealing cars eventually progressed to becoming a heroin junkie. He started off clearly as a product of his environment but proved that that should not define who you are. Now, he’s covered in tattoos with long grey dreadlocks for hair, and a master's in philosophy in criminology from Cambridge University, with many stories to tell. I met him on my first night in Cambridge. I was fortunate enough to interview him.