Zai Jian, America

This is just a very short version of a very long story.

It is said in an ancient Chinese poetry that the saddest thing in life is to depart from friends.

I came to the states to explore how web can help unschooling and bringing out the true face of learning. I now call this effort Open Source Learning.

It has been 9 years since I first came to the states. Over the 9 years, I have worked hard to prepare myself with every skill I need to do this work. However, there is still one very basic skill I still didn’t master: English. If I can totally focus on it, I am confident that I am able to accomplish what I want to achieve in English within 2 years. But living as a foreigner in US, to have free control of my time is the last thing I can ever hope for. (The days of cutting classes to unschool myself when in China were long gone.)

I always feel that it is better for me to work in America. I like Americans’ openness, eagerness to learn, individuality, and treating people equally. Coming to America confirmed me that America is the center that most innovations are happening with an amazing speed. I had a lot of fun here. As I regard making friends as one of the most important things in my life, I have made a lot of good friends in America. I am always thankful to the loves that I have received here. My efforts in my projects are progressing slowly but steadily as well. New York City is certainly a very high platform to build for the future.

Up to this point, I do feel that I need to bring all the efforts to a more concrete form. If I continue to stay in America, it probably will take me at least another 5 years before I will be able to do that. I have tried for the past half year to see if I can focus on writing the software only to realize that it is not possible for me to do so with my current state of mind in America. My living in America currently still is a matter of survival. If my mind has to pay a lot of attention to the words and their meanings, my mind cannot fly. （Thus I do hope people pay more attention to the living conditions of the foreigners and immigrants and try to look at the immigrant problem with a bigger view and mindset. And if I choose to come to America again, I want to make sure that I will have the free control of my time.)

So I feel that going back might be a right choice for me right now. I hope I will be able to give all the efforts a concrete form soon after I go back.

Surly there are still a lot of things that I am not certain of. Thus continuing staying in America could be the most stupid thing I do in my life. Going back might also turn out to be the most stupid thing in my life. Whatever I am doing, I am trying to make OSL happen faster.  It is too bad that I cannot use all my potential here in the states. Although doing this in America is a billion times easier than doing it in China, I think that going back to do this in China might actually be a faster path.

Also I haven’t had a chance to take care of my parents after I finished my undergraduate study. So I would like to spend a few years with them before they get really old. This is another big reason that I feel I should go back now.

I feel the biggest theme for our era is that different cultures learn from and communicate with each other. It is my sincere hope that the learning and communication between different cultures will take much deeper and diverse ways in the near future.

I feel the biggest hope for the world is that people will be able to do more and more things from bottom up through self-organizing without being dictated by governments or capitalists. Such cooperation among people and self-organizing will go beyond the borders of countries. I feel this is the true democracy. Our time is the time that peaceful forces will be able to manifest themselves and be the dominate forces that shape our history and society.

Also keep in mind, when you come to China, you will have a very qualified host to introduce you to China.