In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists. - Jhumpa Lahiri

Whenever he is discouraged, I tell him that if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he can not conquer. While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.

If I want to understand what moves me, what confuses me, what pains me — everything that makes me react, in short — I have to put it into words.

You remind me of everything that followed.