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it turns out, are a much more important resource, than books can ever be. I think I benefited just as much from the discussions, chats, and yes, the heated arguments with my classmates, than from all the essays or articles I read that year. I learned that I don’t have to know all the answers; I just have to know where to find them. I discovered that learning new things is so much more enjoyable now than it was when I was younger and feeling the pressures of attaining that first bachelors or masters’ degree. I reveled in the simple joy of making new friends, which seems so much harder to do when we are older and more set in our ways and outlook. I re alized that striving for perfection is vastly overrated and that sometimes “good enough” is a perfectly worthy pursuit. And I ended that year convinced that the U.S. military has some of the most de dicated and professional people I have ever met in my life. Which brings me back to the Marines and that hike in the Amazon. As part of the second semester curriculum, all the students had a chance to travel abroad. I chose to travel with a group going to Ecuador and Brazil to study how those two co untries were dealing with their massive environ mental issues, which are directly linked to their domestic and international policies. One of the highlights of the trip was a trek through the Amazon rainforest 900 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean in northwestern Brazil. Our group of 30, including several Marine officers, set out in the morning with a guide to study the flora and fauna of the rainforest. As we walked on the muddy rainforest floor, overgrown with thick foliage, breathing in the humid air, we listened to the guide talk about how the Brazilian government hoped to take advantage of this precious natural resource to benefit the population. Our goal was to absorb the exotic atom- sphere of the rainforest and study the distinctive beauty of its multilevel tropical environment. Well, the Marines seemed unable to view this hike as anything other than a race to the finish line. They stormed past all of us slow moving civilians, their sturdy hiking boots sending up small splatters of mud as they marched past us, resolutely heading towards the opening of light in the rainforest canopy, which signaled our base camp. At that pace, they simply could not have glimpsed the prized Urania butterfly, its iridescent wings reflected in the brilliant green pools of still water. Nor could they have really listened in wonder to the scarlet macaw’s piercing cry. Yes, they did indeed sprint from start to finish in record time . . . but that wasn’t the point of the hike. It was at that moment that I really, truly, deeply understood what “they” mean when “they” say: “You’ve got to stop and smell the roses” or “Life’s a journey, not a destination,” or (my per sonal favorite from—of all places—a United Air lines advertisement) “As you climb the corporate ladder, it’s ok to admire the view.” It occurred to me then that I had been like those Marines, rushing through life in order to reach a goal, not always clear on what the goal was and missing things along the way. Since achieving my first master’s degree at age 21,1 had rushed at breakneck speed from one job to another, from the Voice of America to Radio Liberty to the State Department, from New York to Washington to Munich, back to Washington, with barely a pause to assess if I was heading in the right direction. My year at NDU allowed me to take a break from my career, to slow down and just reflect on what I had acquired during the last 20 years of my life: the knowledge, the experience, the relation ships, the baggage—emotional and physical—the “stuff’ of life. It was during my NDU year and in the months afterwards that I began to reassess what “stuff’ I wanted to keep and what “stuff’ had become a burden and needed to be dumped from my life. In the end, I think I will reach the conclusion that I was indeed heading in the right direction; but slowing down the pace, whether in the Amazon rainforest or on the road that one has chosen in life, is not a bad idea.
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