|
||
|
||
My first experience with China was as a young American consumer. Throughout my childhood and into early adulthood, China was a source of goods consumed in my daily life, but beyond that, China remained a mystery to me. Until five years ago, when I visited China as part of a Ball State University delegation. During that trip, I had the opportunity to visit five amazing Chinese cities and meet many students, educators and business people. The image I had been expecting was shattered when I saw the modern Jin Mao building in Shanghai, the beauty of Beijing¡¯s Summer Palace and The Great Wall, the history of Xian¡¯s ancient Terra Cotta Warriors, the enormity of the Three Gorges Dam and crossing Hong Kong¡¯s Victoria Harbour for the first time. After that first visit, the mystery of China changed to intrigue.When a job opportunity arose in Shenzhen in 2003, I jumped at the chance to move to China and began my new life exploring China as a resident. A new job in a new city in a country where I didn¡¯t speak any of the language led to some interesting and frustrating experiences. More importantly, these experiences have helped me to broaden who I am both personally and professionally, while allowing me the opportunity to share China with my friends, family and colleagues in America. I love living here and over the last four and a half years my love for China has only deepened. In my job with a U.S.-based Quality Assurance services company, I am an ambassador for American importers to Chinese factories; and to my Chinese colleagues, I work hard to always represent the best of America's culture and people. To be selected to represent my home country, America, in the country I now call home, China, would be an honor beyond description. While I may not possess the athletic physique of an Olympian, I live the Olympic ambassadorial spirit each and every day. It would also be a delight for the hundreds of Chinese people that I have come to know over the past five years to see an American whom they know, one they have spoken with, worked with, traveled with, and eaten with, carrying the Olympic torch in their own country! Thanks for your consideration and vote for my bid to be a 2008 Beijing Olympic torchbearer.
|
