It Begins
San Francisco
03.09.2009 - 04.09.2009
View
To China We Go!
on Michael C's travel map.
Flight from San Francisco to Seoul, Seoul to Shanghai. Throughout my waiting on my journey I would continue Stranger in a Strange Land. Mom noted how apropos it was; I just felt bad for not finishing it beforehand. The other books I brought that I hadn't started/finished were High Fidelity and Man's Fate.
While sitting at the terminal in San Francisco, a man sat next to me and introduced himself as Justin. He was surprising one of his cousins (Joe) by accompanying him on the same flight to visit the family back in Korea, unbeknownst to him. I was enlisted to video the exchange when it happened, so that a third cousin going on a different flight could see it.
He was around 35 years old. We continued talking, and he turned out to be a financial consultant with Microsoft. He had gone to a state school in Washington before heading to Apple in 1997 for the dotcom boom. He then sold his soul "with eyes wide open" and joined Microsoft. He talked about John D. Rockfeller (he had recently read a book on him named Titan), which he broached because Mr. Rockfeller founded UChicago. We talked of billionaires and investing. I felt bad that I hadn't opened the Fidelity account this summer, but then again investing would have involved time and effort that I was already using in other areas.
He was ambivalent about his career in finance, wishing that he had taken a gap year or travelled to figure out what he wanted to do. But then again he seemed content with what working in finance had given him. Anyway, it was very interesting to talk to him.
Posted by Michael C 03.09.2009 18:11
