My plan to go away

Humans look at a distant mountain and cannot help but want to climb it. We take journeys to places far away, if only to better see the land where we come from. This is my rather dramatic way of saying that I’m going to France for a little while after college. (Who’s really reading this, anyway?)

Going to France is cliché, isn’t it? From time to time, all young people picture themselves with their berets and croissants. But why should that stop me? Dreams die for usually one of two reasons: First, we dismiss them, and second, we defer them.

Dismissal: Dreams are usually dismissed because we find them impractical, or silly, or a combination of the two. What’s impractical about living in France? Millions of people do that every day. Often when we have these distant dreams in our hearts, we’re just too afraid to really think them through, since we may be confronted with the risks involved in making them a reality. As for dreams being silly, we either tell ourselves this to avoid the risks involved, or others tell us this because they know they’re not capable of realizing the dream themselves.

Impractical and silly. These two concepts have nipped all sorts of fantasies in the bud, but I won’t let them touch me.

Deferral: We all know the dangers of putting dreams on hold. We keep our aspirations holed up in the dim corners of ourselves, but why? Why wait until we’re old or sick?

I know I’m speaking in whispy terms, so let’s set down facts:

I have a legitimate interest in learning French. Everything from my phone to my YouTube account has been in French for years. I’ve been taking French lessons daily since high school (yes, through Duolingo). I’m not anywhere close to fluent, but I haven’t given up after all this time.
I’m finding and applying to a French intensive immersion program for this summer, Summer ‘22. In the meantime, I’ll study the language as much as I can, in between my classes and research.
This intensive will hopefully increase my chances of finding a decent job in France after I graduate.
I don’t want to live in France indefinitely. I don’t want to plan out the rest of my life– why should I?– but I think staying for a year after college would give me enough time to learn more about the culture there.
I’m not blindly obsessed with France. The culture is just different enough from the U.S. to be worth the journey, the language is similar enough (something like Arabic or Japanese would be too tough), and the landscape is perfect. France is also close to lots of other beautiful countries.
I’m not scared. I’d rather be naively romantic than dull and practical. I’m young.

Anyway, one more thing: I’d like write future posts primarily in French. My French is awful, but I need to start somewhere! I’ll likely be relying from time to time on digital translation tools, but as little as possible. I’ll just have to keep my writing simple. I’ll start now by including a poem excerpt popularized by “The Wind Rises” from “Le Cimetière Marin” (The Graveyard by the Sea) by Paul Valéry:

Le vent se lève... ! Il faut tenter de vivre !
L’air immense ouvre et referme mon livre,
La vague en poudre ose jaillir des rocs !
Envolez-vous, pages tout éblouies !
Rompez, vagues ! Rompez d’eaux réjouies
Ce toit tranquille où picoraient des focs !