Reaching out to people, knowing how they are and what they are doing, to me, now, is not a means for friend-seeking. To a large extent, it is for calibration. To calibrate my position in the world with regard to other people. I don’t mean I will compare myself with other people, such as their wealth and social status. I just want to know how other people are doing, so that I can better understand how to live with myself and how I can interact with the world (that includes all these other people I’m calibrating against). Going back to China has inevitably acted as a forcing function of calibration, though I was unaware of this aspect of the trip at that time. Because of this trip, I realized how much of a comfortable bubble I was when I lived in the U.S., and I also came to see how I had treated myself with insanely high standards. I learned how others are suffering yet still living, and how that means maybe I could hold some hope as well. Calibration is healthy, and I’ll remember to keep doing it.