I'm sure I could use the help. I don't actually have a linear path mapped out. I am looking for many things and nothing at all in the teach abroad experience. Part of me thinks its essential to have and meet goals while traveling and part of me believes that to do so will generate expectations that'll go unfulfilled. I'm trying to stay rooted in reality and be as pragmatic as possible about the whole...

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My fiance mocks the idea by repeating the names of various countries which I have not expressed interest in to friends and colleagues. My sister rolls her eyes and pretends to listen. Or other family members just become quiet, feign interest, wish me half-hearted luck. My father informs me of all the adversities I will face, including ridicule if I return robbed of a dream due to my delusions about it's greatness. Is this common? Do other people...

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I'm sorry if you inferenced that I was blaming men alone for the perpetuation of gender based stereotypes. I thought it was clear in my argument about the biases that begin in child rearing that women were equally responsible. In no way did I feel fathers were the sole motivators behind the act of relegating identity to a child's sex. Yes, you are right, women work hard, in variety of professions, to keep identity categorically...

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Honestly, it begins in childhood and stems all the way up through late adulthood experience (which I know of through secondary sources since I am only in my late 20's and it would be unfair to extrapolate on experiences I'm too young to have had). While I'd hate to overgeneralize, it's still highly common for young women to be raised as caretakers and boys as pioneers. Take the toy industry or the advertisement of certain colors and...

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I wanted to add a comment on the gender bias that the word dreamer connotes. Clearly, there aren't any men chiming in on the topic here, which is fine because as opposed to in my youth (relatively speaking), today I actually firmly  believe in the power of sisterhood support. I attribute this to being raised by my father, whose opinions of women were offensive but so common and well justified, they felt natural repeating. However, I began thinking...

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You're a dreamer, he said, just like your mother. You embark on a journey from home to find something greater--greater than what, God knows--only to make 4 right turns; 4 decisions which reinforce the same patterns over and over again until you end up where you left off. And when you get back to the point of origin it's as if you rediscover the unique qualities which always draw you home, until you grow bored,...

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I've been dealing with some formidable resistance back home. It makes sense to me that my fiance is mad I want to leave, and that this life decision jeapordizes our future plans in a big way. Truthfully, the jeapordization must have happened long before the decision to travel and teach abroad was made or I would not have moved in such a direction to begin with...regardless, it is painstakingly clear that this is not his...

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There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is goldAnd she's buying a stairway to heavenAnd when she gets there she knows if the stores are closedWith a word she can get what she came forWoe oh oh oh oh ohAnd she's buying a stairway to heaven There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sureAnd you know sometimes words have two meaningsIn the tree by the brook there's a songbird who...

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If I leave here tomorrowWould you still remember me?For I must be traveling on, now'Cause there's too many placesI've got to seeBut, if I stayed here with you, girlThings just couldn't be the same'Cause I'm as free as a bird nowAnd this bird, you'll can not changeOh, oh, oh, oh, ohAnd the bird you cannot changeAnd this bird you cannot changeLord knows, I can?t changeBye, bye, baby it's been a sweet loveYeah, yeahThough this feeling...

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I've got another confession to makeI'm your foolEveryone's got their chains to breakHoldin' youWere you born to resist, or be abused?Is someone getting the bestThe best, the best, the best of you?Is someone getting the bestThe best, the best, the best of you?Or are you gone and onto someone new?I needed somewhere to hang my headWithout your nooseYou gave me something that I didn't haveBut had no useI was too weak to give inToo strong...

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