My goals for this blog are as follows:
- Write regularly—more regularly. One post a week. I can do this. (I tell myself.)
- Share Asia. Compare and contrast my experiences in Taiwan and Hong Kong and beyond.
- Explore the world. Connect ideas.
- Search for meaning. How do the events and places and people and nations of the world connect and interconnect?
- Search for my own life’s meaning—not as in a box or a label, but as in a purpose and in a connecting of ideas and life experiences. Being defined is, to me, a goal. An aspiration. A standing out. A purpose.
Life: Insert meaning [here].
p.s. Happy Birthday, Derek! I love and miss you.
shift 
Jessica, I like the way you think. Life to you is an event with a meaning that is deeper than just what you experience day to day. There has to be reason for you, and there is. The reason that life has meaning (aside from the spiritual idea that God loves us) is that we are able to do things for others. That is where happiness originates, in seeing the world through someone else’s eyes and making their world a better place. Without that, life becomes a futile struggle to find the pieces that will make one feel whole — buying this, seeing that, experiencing this, all centered on oneself.
Ok I’ve waxed philosophical, maybe goofy.
Thanks for writing. Keep it coming.
It’s always nice to read someone’s first post!
You weren’t far off! This was almost my first post. It’s a terrible post, too. Oh well! :P