Letters to China

 I got a lot of interesting questions from people who responded to my letter. Some of them ranged from "what did you mean that you made it through the entire year in one piece?" I think that some of the references that we make here in America are often times misinterpreted. We have a lot of idioms in our sentences that the Chinese probably don't understand because things are often times lost in translation. It surprised me to see how blunt some of the students were in their papers. I feel like generally speaking, I am careful to tread water when asking a question to someone; whereas they come right out and ask what they are truly thinking.
   I think that the students who read my letters really saw me for who I was/am. I also feel like when I wrote that letter I was writing it at a different part in my life. I know it's only been about two months since we wrote those, but a lot has happened since then; a lot of healing. I know that I have a wonderful life and am blessed beyond belief, sometimes it is nice to have other people point that out to you; although I would never want to lessen someones view of their own life and make them envy what I have. That's one of the harder things to not do when you are reading about someone is to compare their life to your own. We all live differently and cannot compare ourselves to others for when we do, we set ourselves up for failure.
  The letters made me sad and also extremely overwhelmed with joy. Many of the women who responded to my letter made me feel beautiful, but not in the way you would normally think about beauty. On paper, I am able to pour my heart out and people I don't even know get the chance to see that side of me. In reality, we are all layers, but on paper, our hearts are revealed. When the ladies told about my bravery, my ability to love and be loved, and my "unique personality" I was floored. They saw me in my purest and most raw form without even knowing me. People you see every single day in the halls don't take the time to get to know you because they don't care. It amazes me the difference in the culture and the respect levels. It is sad by the means it takes for them to get to the level; what I mean by that is their world is so restrictive that they learn to appriciate everything while we take and take, never giving back.
  The responses left me feeling broken-hearted over how much I take for granted. I live a beautiful life and I am glad I get to share it. I also wanted them to know that it isn't all beautiful though. For it to be that way, we all have had to go through the ugly to see the beauty in any situation. Even over-seas, we are all just people who are trying to find our purpose and desperately fighting to find a way. It is encouraging to know that.