a soldier-to-be has never been

Ed Song, a senior at CSULB, has never traveled outside the country. He is majoring in Business Marketing and is a contracted ROTC recruit. Song is an executive officer of the 416 Civil Affairs Psychological Operations Command.

Acting as a liason between his fellow soldiers and the Alpha Company set in San Diego, he runs physical training drills while training himself to be an EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) Technician.

His lack of travel experience has forced him to explore different ways to gain his own wordly perspective. Like everything else in life, Song views traveling as a privelege that needs to be earned.

With strength, grit and personality Song proves that "Freedom is not free. There is a certain function I need to perform for this country before I can exercise its freedoms."

At the age of 21, Song has developed a sophisticated grasp of the American citizen's right to freedom that emits through the way he lives and views life.

During our quite casual conversation, he never felt embarrassed to express his viewpoints through such stern and formal language. Even though his dialogue sounded as if he were reciting speeches straight from a manual, I got the impression that his confidence came from something beyond his years of military drilling. Perhaps he was born with it.

"If you had all the money in the world, would you still be on your way to the military?" Both for the sake of the interview and as a friend trying to persuade another to re-think his decisions about going to war, I proposed a silly but serious question. "Yes. I need it as a a vehicle to make a difference in the world" Song replies. But with all the money in the world, you can just donate half of it to the poor. Isn't that enough of a difference? My efforts were little gnomes being chomped down by Song's gargantuan of a plan. "It's a part of me that I have to prove to myself. I have to prove that I can do it."

At this point, I was getting the idea that Song wasn't the type to budge and that he was going to be Mr. Narrow-minded for the rest of the interview. In fact, I was wrong.

Although Song was born and raised in Southern California, he feels that he has gained a "broader perspective of the world."

A little ironic?

An average person will argue that you must see the world in order to gain a worldly view, but with Song as the exception, those people need to speak for themselves. "My job as a civil affairs officer is to learn about different cultures and adapt to them in order to acheive a goal" Song adds, "And plus you can learn more about different cultures here more than anywhere else in the world." With L.A. County arguably being one of the most popular places to live, it's also one of the most diverse.

With Song as a witness, we learn that spending loads of money on airfare and traveling to foreign grounds isn't required to explore diversity and culture. According to Webster's Dictionary, to travel is to make a journey. Whether it's a short journey to Little India in Artesia, or a voyage to South Africa, there's always something important waiting to be learned.