On traveling and marrage

I started using this thing called Facebook just recently which is a social networking website where friends link to friends and share information. It's a rather fascinating webpage as I have found many old acquaintances I used to know dating back all the way back to my elementary school era. It's rather fascinating to see how many of my old friends are doing, all of them seem to be doing pretty well.

One interesting thing I noticed, is a growing number of acquaintances and friends getting married or have gotten married. I have a feeling in the next 3~4 years that there will be a boom of marriages within my circle of friends as people start heading towards the end of their 20's. As for me, I too have begun contemplating the idea of getting married but I am also cautious of not rushing myself to anything because everyone else is doing something. Things will happen, when or if there is a right time, but not sooner.

Living in a place like Japan with strong ties to a community of foreigners I have noticed that most people that travel aren't married. I have met countless numbers of foreign teachers and international students doing their masters, Ph.D's or postdocs out here and nearly none of them are married, despite many of them being in the latter half of their 20's. I doubt any of them are getting married anytime soon.

Life in Japan is incredibly interesting and fun, especially living as a foreigner. There is a sort of a character that many people become while traveling. It is the kind of outgoing adventurous character you become when you travel to a different country. It is, in effect a collection of your desire to make the best of your limited time somewhere. You say 'hi' to random people, sometimes you might get yourself into or start a random conversation with someone on street, you end up trying as many new things as possible or going to as many places as possible, you want to be nice and make friends while in a different place. This is what I call "the spirit of a traveler." I hope that when I do come back to Canada, I remain as a traveler for time to come.

The problem is that being a traveler has certain problems when it comes to relationships, that problem is not knowing where you'll be in the future. You might be living in a certain city for a few years before moving on to somewhere else, you might go home to your home country eventually. Obviously, it is a matter of knowing when you will be settling down. Travelers, unfortunately, won't be settling down for a while, but even if I end up marrying late, I will have no regrets about going off on my adventures, because it is something that I will likely never experience if I had done otherwise.

I wish I went traveling a little earlier, but it really depends on when you are ready to go.