Dear Someone I Just Met,

Hello!  It was so nice to meet you the other night.  It was especially fun to talk to you about about our common Third culture.  It has been a while since I met someone who really understands that, and it seems like you've turned out well for all the complications it can add to life.

You asked me some great questions, but I don't feel like I did a very good job of answering them.  I wanted to clarify, or rather expand upon why I told you I came to Moscow.  There were some interesting other place I could have gone to this year and you were right to keep asking me "why not?"  It's true, my family is here and I don't know how many chances I'll have to live close to them.  And yes, the safety factor in the other places was questionable, but that doesn't matter so much because I will still one day go there.  But mostly, the reason that I came to Moscow was to become a better teacher.  

Sometime over the past few years, I decided I wanted to grow up and try to make the world a better place.  I'm not wandering the Earth anymore, looking for myself or anything like that (although I happily keep finding new things).  Like I said that night, I do believe that education is a key part of rebuilding and strengthening certain said nations.  I wanted to become a good teacher so that I can part of the solution, instead of adding to the problem with immaturity and naivety.  Last spring I was very new to teaching and wasn't sure of my ability.  I wanted to get a bit of proper training and mentorship before running off to inspire young minds and change the world (or whatever other idealistic outcome I can imagine).

So that's it.  I hope this clarifies things.  It might not even matter to you, but I thought about it for a whole day and felt bad that I hadn't explained myself well enough.  Thank you for causing me to have a rather introspective weekend and I hope to see you around soon.

Peace.