This week I have been writing a paper on capitalism, while at the same time receiving some pretty forceful reminders of home. Two competing interests for my time are bringing existential questions to mind: How am I supposed to balance this? Which one of these people am I: am I the person I was before, or the person I am now? Is this where I’m supposed to be?

Human mental and emotional systems tend to favor binaries: male/female, here/there, us/them, etc. But none of my actual life is like that – there is the process of doing things: learning, asking, deciding (the most difficult step for me), acting, waiting, waiting more, reconsidering, then the process repeats.

There is the process of innovation: not just ideas and exploitation, but development, inspiration, creation, commercialization, industrialization, and more.

It’s blockchains, karaoke machines, and the beauty of choice. We have lots of options.

There’s also the wide range of human experiences we can draw from – from multi-racial and non-binary identities, multilingual singers (my favorite is Manu Chao), multi-party political systems, multilateral institutions, varieties of capitalism, overlapping spheres of power, phases of industrialization…

… sorry, I forgot this was not class for a moment.

But it does bring up a good point – for which GLOCAL is a perfect example. Two things that seem binary are not necessarily so. We juxtapose the global and the local, two seemingly opposite ends of scale. But in reality, it’s a multifaceted experience – and it’s glocal. This Master’s is not just about my school and my non-school. It’s about the time in between. It’s about the reading of books I always wanted to explore, the walking in the rain, and the listening. It’s working on a paper, and going to the grocery, and missing home, all at the same time. I don’t have to tear myself in two or make a definition of myself that is static. It’s OK to be many things at once, and change as well. It’s ok to be in process.

I am the person I am today, and the one I’m becoming.

Written by Molly

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