Living in China has been a transformative experience

For those fortunate enough to go to college, the experience is very often one that brings profound changes. Young people's minds are expanded. They meet people they may never have otherwise met, and they do a lot of growing up as they get their first real taste of adult life.

When I started my bachelor's degree at the University of Georgia, in the United States, I was a small-town kid with a lot of curiosity. Just over four years later, I was in some ways a different person. I spoke a second language, had lived abroad and was more worldly－but still with a lot left to learn.

Now, many years later, I have been taking stock. Between Shanghai and Beijing, I have made China my adoptive home for about twice as long as I was in college. Even after decades of work and raising children and just plain living before I crossed the Pacific Ocean, China still changed me.