How Time is Everything

I spent last Saturday afternoon in a coffee shop drinking a lemon shake. Leaving, I ran into someone I know, who introduced me to his wife (I knew of her, but didn't know her) and we proceeded to ask the normal set of global nomadic questions, "who are you with? where are you from? how long have you been here? how long will you be here?" For me, the answer to the second two questions is "one year" and "two more years." This was met with respect and admiration which made me feel validated, particularly because it was Saturday so I was dressed like an absolute slob.

The occurrence left me thinking as I left to run errands. Time is the Global Nomad's greatest asset. This was my conclusion based on this odd chance encounter (which was otherwise awkward because she thought she knew me and I thought I knew her but neither of us really did but we were still pretending that we did and I was still dressed like a slob).

The longer you have been in one location, the greater your legitimacy. You're not one of those short-term-ers. You're clearly committed. You're clearing in the game for the game's sake. I started reflecting back on the people I have respected overseas. Many of them have spent decades overseas in any given country and often they are incredibly humble and quiet people. We respect them because they are deep wells of knowledge. We respect them because they have invested in place far from their home. We respect them because they represent what we ourselves will likely never achieve for whatever complicated reasons.

I have never been that nomad. My intervals abroad have been short and any legitimacy comes from my overall duration overseas. Now I'm in the interesting place of being committed to one place for a fair amount of time. Apparently with that comes expectations of legitimacy as a Cambodian expat. It's odd. That's not my story and while three years is hardly that long, in a world of two-year turnovers, it's indeed odd.

But then again, I honestly don't know my own story. I certainly don't know much about Cambodia. I think of myself as racking up time overseas as time overseas, because that's what we do! The only thing legitimate about me...I legitimately dress terribly on weekends.