A good day

I'm wrapping up the day, and I wanted to touch up on it, since it's been a pretty interesting sort of day. Earlier, my group and I went to a meeting with the Armenian Ambassador. It was a pretty amazing opportunity to meet with a high ranking official. As it turns out, he's a really cool guy. He's smart, but not arrogant and he's sociable, but not unintelligent. He wanted us to have a conversation instead of him lecturing, so we were able to ask him a few questions. He answered all of our questions in such a balanced way, I was ridiculously impressed at his ability to never tell us exactly what he was thinking. I suppose I really got to see diplomacy at work for the fist time ever.

Throughout the two hours we spent with him, he could tell I was really bothered by some of the less encouraging topics we talked about; I guess I'm not as good at hiding what I'm thinking on my face. He kept reminding me not to get too upset or discouraged by the gravity of things. I think he's right because I realized something very important throughout the meeting. Of course, I could be upset that Armenia is landlocked and blockaded on both the East and the West. I could be sad that Armenia's borders were drawn in a way that made it resource-less while surrounded by resource rich countries. And finally, I could be furious that Armenia is not prospering as quickly as my impatient self wants it to be. But in the end...that gets me nowhere but depression. I think that in the end of it all, it's only thanks to Armenia's potential progress and difficulty that I have the possibility to fight for something unique. Without these hardships for Armenia, I don't think I would have quite the same connection or the same urgency that I have today. I don't think that everyone gets the chance to experience what I feel every day. For that, I can only be thankful.


PS. Check out the ambassador's expression. There's something about Armenian men. They don't like smiling in photos... but I guess he kinda tried.