I was living with next to nothing and I was the HAPPIEST I’ve ever been in my entire life.

“Americans don’t understand how insanely expensive it is to live in the U.S.,” Bobby said on my podcast. He sold everything he owned and left the country in 2009. Right after the market crashed. Now he works all over the world.

I’m convinced we need more conversations, less judgment.

“So there aren’t actually kangaroos hopping around everywhere?”

I joined the Marine Corps less than six months after I turned eighteen, so adulthood remained a mythical land – full of freedom and good fortune.

We’d like to invite our community of veteran readers to take the reigns on an important discussion.

“Growing up Muslim clearly has not been a really ‘safe and easy’ ride.”

I saw myself the way everyone else did. I was not Indonesian. I was born and raised in Jakarta but growing up, I had subconsciously shunned every single aspect of my country’s culture and history in favor of America’s. I became an honorary American without realizing it.

American isn’t white, it isn’t brown, it is AMERICAN.

It’s an all-too-typical scene for me: I walk up to the cashier at Manning’s and greet the cashier with a casual “你好.” Perhaps this is my giveaway – Chinese culture tends to be light on unnecessary formalities.