I hadn't been free from adult responsibilities since I was 12, and I needed to experience that. I really needed to just be a kid again.
I love this country because I didn't always have it. Freedom, food, water that is clean, Constitution - these are not things I take for granted.
I think many people are terribly afraid of being demoted by the Darwinian scheme from the role of authors and creators in their own right into being just places where things happen in the universe.