10 year reunion

Today is the 10 year high school reunion for Whitefish High School, the school from which I graduated. When the date got set for during this trip my thought was "Woe is me, I'll be in a land of great music, great food, beautiful women and beautiful beaches." In October I'm attending the reunion for Leigh High School in San Jose, where I went to 9th and 10th grade.

A month ago I missed a family reunion celebrating my dad's 60th and my uncle Bryan's retirement, a much bigger deal for me than the reunion. I knew I needed to come here and work on my language skills for my career. In the grand scheme of things people give up it's not that big, but it caused me to reflect more broadly on the nature of opting for the academic life. I'm in NC because it's the place to be for what I want to do. I love it there, but I'm far away from family. When (if?) I get a job I'll have limited options as to where it is, so there's a good chance I'll be away from family again. The amount we in the U.S. move for work contrasts with a lot of places where people tend to live where they grew up (with the important exception of immigration...). In the U.S. it also seems to vary based on class an other social factors: certain groups of people move a lot for careers, others stay put.