A SHORT STORY

My Why to Try. 

Hi and thanks for stopping by!  My name is Nathan Lee Mulherin, and after graduating from secondary school in 1999, I embarked upon a summer trip to the Philippines to visit one of my older siblings, and it was a trip that would change my life. Following my arrival, I grasped for the first time the reality of a living condition so different from that to which I was accustomed. The overpowering smoky smell of burning trash, the confusing traffic customs, and the aggressive yet friendly manner of the Philippine natives were all eye-openers. In the first few moments of standing on foreign soil, I realized my trip would be far from ordinary. Ultimately, the experience inspired my passionate interest in Geography, which I continued to explore at New Mexico State University and then within a Master’s Program at the University of Illinois.

It was ironic, I grew up quite near the developing world, but didn’t really acknowledge the socio-economic disparities between myself and the people living so close by. Growing up in the border town of El Paso, Texas, I felt an indifference towards the impoverished many located just a few miles South.  One was usually able to view the shantytowns of Juarez, Mexico with a simple glimpse across the great Rio Grande River. The landscape, peppered with huts of cardboard, wood, and various scrap metals, inevitably gave rise to a numbness, expressed in the common dismissal of the day, “It’s just Mexico.”   I guess given the fact that I was young, I had no wish to accept, nor understand, such an unsatisfying reality. It was almost as if I were taught to ignore such circumstances so as to keep my innocence. I can tell you this...there was definitely a lack of people, be it parents or teachers, venturing to explain or discuss in detail the state of affairs at that time. In appears in those situations, ignorance certainly was bliss.  Fortunately, such an attitude would not last forever.

That summer trip to the Philippines was exciting from the start.  Island-hopping for three weeks straight with my brother Sean proved to be a challenge, given our lack of fluency in Spanish and our unfamiliarity with the geography of most of the country. I saw many beautiful islands, reefs, waterfalls, and people...it was absolutely amazing.  However, given that my brother and his family ran a health clinic in one of the poorest quarters of town, I also observed the incredibly harsh living conditions some people endured. One particular vision I recall quite clearly was that of a few small children, playing in puddles of the filthiest water, splashing each other, and pouring it on themselves as though it had some type of cleansing effect to it.  Cloudy brown water, strewn with miscellaneous objects, was the source of these children’s entertainment. The sight overpowered and haunted me. Never did I think that a place of such beauty could concurrently foster such pain. This revelation established within me a curiosity of foreign places and people, as well as my dismayed awareness of people in need. This new interest in people and places was what eventually lured me to the inspiring field of Geography.

In studying the subject of the earth I was introduced to it anew.  In my University classes, especially my class on Cultural Geography, I realized that the world was far more vast and complex than I had once perceived it to be, and this ultimately deepened within me a thirst for new knowledge.  Learning of new places with cultures, environments, economies, and governments differing so immensely from our very own truly fascinated me and brought past perceptions and experiences into a new light.  When I had first seen those children in the Philippines playing in filthy water, for example, I couldn’t understand how such conditions were allowed to occur. However, with accumulation of insights over the years of study, particularly in my classes on Economic Geography and World Regional Geography, key causes began to surface. One example of such a cause can be summarized in what many academics call dependency theory.  Essentially, more development in one place necessarily involves less elsewhere, thus developed countries grow at the expense of developing countries.  My growing understanding of these interrelationships between man and his environment instilled a new curiosity about how they will continue to affect each other as the processes of globalization unfolds. 

In addition, during my last semester of studies, the social and economic aspects imbedded within Geography attracted most of my interests and inspired a paper on the Russian-Chechen Conflict of the late 90's.  It was through this research, that I came to this conclusion;  that the current national apathy towards other nations and national economic interests in the past and present, and the sometimes unscrupulous methods employed to satisfy them, are primary reasons for many of the underdeveloped and war torn regions we see in existence today. For this reason, I became especially captivated with the struggles of nations and states and the varying social and economic conditions and conflicts that arise over disparities in resources, spaces, and ideologies.

All in all I had received a much better awareness and understanding of the causes of economic disparities.  Given this better understanding and familiarity of global poverty, I  felt I had a personal responsibility to take action. 

I ultimately came to the realization that I couldn’t make structural or overarching changes within countries, nor could I influence how a nation’s government or its people decided to pursue and utilize their resources.  Now, after getting over a certain disenchantment that I couldn't change everything single handedly,  I have fortunately come to this conclusion: that I can make a small change, and that if I make enough small changes, they will add up!  And one day when they are all put together, a big change will have been made.  So I decided to stop waiting and committed to starting now.  I decided to TRY.

I am passionate about being the change I seek in the world. Won’t you Join Me and Try?

NO SETTLING FOR LESS.  JOIN US IN SETTLING FOR THE BEST