“My parents are both American and they encouraged me to study in an American college in Holland, Michigan. I’m living on my own for the first time in an apartment and working in a restaurant. A very good restaurant, Marie Catrib’s. I’m cooking there. I’m burning myself out early on, working 50 hours a week.
“I really like (Immanuel) Kant, the philosopher. He’s German. I think the coolest thing about him is he never travelled more than 10 miles away from his home town in Germany and yet he was able to describe the way the world works in words that still affect us today. We think that now we have to get around (travel) and experience different things to get to know things. He knew it all just from staying in his home town. Sometimes when I get up I try to think about his words.
“There was a quote once that I liked a lot that went something like, everywhere you go you’ll always miss someone and that’s the richness of knowing more than one people or place.”
Reporting and photo by Matt Smith
