Our Small World

        For lunch today, I broke bread with seven other people and had a conversation that seemed to wander comfortably.  We chatted about many different things, and everyone was eager to participate and be heard, but even more eager to sit back and listen.  Even after the food was gone, we remained there for another 40 minutes.
        As I sat, I looked around the table and was immediately impressed with the people around me.  We represented a diverse group of cultures: three of us were from different provinces of China, one of us was from Hungary, another from Korea, one from New York, one from Wyoming, and the last one - you guessed it - claimed Utah.  The two people to my right and to my left both had a PhD in economics.  The man immediately across from me was an expert in inter-systems development (whatever that means).  The remaining four of us are undergraduate student in our final semesters at Weber State University.  
        I don't tell you this so that you'll be impressed with the caliber of my lunch-mates.  Almost the opposite - it occurred to me how humbling it can be when we consider just how large this world is, and how it very much exists at our fingertips.  Here I am, a normal ("normal") mormon kid from northern Utah who suddenly finds himself surrounded by friends from all corners of the globe (Yes, I understand the expression, and yes, I know that the globe doesn't have corners).  We were completely comfortable with one another, shared experiences about our education and our aspirations, and laughed.  A lot.  I was surprised at how much our collective senses of humor matched up, despite our cultural differences.  
        In the next few months, my beautiful wife and I will be moving to Glendale, Arizona so that I can start my masters program.  I've chosen a Masters of Global Finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.  I said the full name (quiet a mouthful) because I wanted to highlight the 'global' part.  Thunderbird cares very much about people being able to connect across borders.  I'm thrilled and excited about the opportunities I'll have in continuing my education in an institution that is so concerned with the global aspect of the future.
        This is a short post.  I don't have much more to say - I was just thrilled that this world is so small, and getting smaller.  I'll share more about Thunderbird later, but for now, I just wanted to highlight how wonderful it is that we can have friends from many and diverse places, and that we can grow, even as this world seems to shrink around us.