A new start?

April 4, 1975 is a landmark date for me. It is the date I first set foot in the United States. That historic event took place at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York. I was a wee toddler at the time, but the date (if not the experience itself) has remained significant for me because of what it represents. My family was seeking to pursue the American Dream, as do so many others arriving in New York City.

Nearly 40 years later, I feel like I have lived the American Dream during my time in the United States. I do not mean to suggest I have achieved the economic security and independence of which we all dream. I most certainly have not. But I have lived pretty well. I have gotten a world-class education (two, actually), made some great friends, done good work that I am proud of, and finally met and married the love of my life. Along the way,  I have had ample time and sufficient money to enjoy excellent recreation and travel and lots of other fun things and good times. I've even been able to splurge occasionally on some of the "finer things."

I really cannot complain about my life in the United States. But I am not blind to what is happening to America. I have had worked extremely hard for less income and wealth than the generation before me. Greed and corporatism have made a mockery of our democracy and of the American Dream. America’s progress is reversing. It is now easier for a hard working immigrant such as myself to enter the middle class in the “socialist nightmare” of Europe than it is in the United States.

So perhaps today, December 7, 2011, will be another landmark date for me. Today is the day I leave for an extended stay in Australia. As I await my flight at the San Francisco International Airport, I am still not sure whether I will be a vacationer, a short-term worker, or an immigrant. It will, in part, depend on what opportunities I find down under and the speed of the economic recovery in the Pacific Northwest. But it will also depend on what I find in the people and places of the Great South Land. I will open myself to it and enjoy the experience. I will decide later. For now, I have the best of both worlds.