What’s My Age Again?
The Tale of an Ageless Man
You step out of the plane, look around, and feel lost. You’re not really sure where you are, or anything about this new land you just traveled to. The air is different, the smell, the view, everything doesn’t seem to be like that place you left behind, the place we all like to call home. The people look different, they speak a strange language that you may not comprehend. That’s the beauty of traveling to a new country; you get to feel like a newborn baby, you’re ready to experience new things, you’re ready to live a life you haven’t lived before.
I had not slept for two days, and had been traveling for the past twelve hours. I felt like I was about to die, but I was beyond excited about finally being in Costa Rica. As soon as I grabbed my bags and found my way out of the airport; I was overwhelmed by the amount of people standing outside the sliding doors. Before I even had time to breathe in the warm Costa Rican air, a strange old man approached me and greeted me with, “Pura vida! Welcome to Costa Rica.” This same man persisted on getting me to rent a car from him. Even after I explained that I was waiting on a group of around thirty people, and we had a bus, he would reply with “no problem, we fit you in the car.” I finally saw the god-sent sign, which said “UGA ASCWP,” next to the sign was a funny looking Chinese man.
Little did I know, this man was going to be one of the most interesting people I would be meeting on this three-weeks-long journey. George Lin, was standing by a column, looking at his oversized phone, protecting his bags for dear life. With a smirk on his face, he greeted me. We were both unsure about who each other was, so obviously we began talking about how the man holding the “UGA ASCWP” sign looked like Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. Nintendo game.
George Lin is a very charismatic person, one with a peculiar charm created by his arrogant sarcasm. If George Lin would be a cartoon, he would MegaMind. A popularly appreciated villain, misunderstood in some ways, but a genius regardless.
Amongst the students of the UGA Costa Rica study abroad program, there has been one question that has been left unanswered, the mystery of all mysteries, what is George Lin’s real age? The answers varied between 30 and late 40s, but no one really knows. Students, and faculty, have approached George, intrigued about this mysterious question, yet his response remained the same, “make bets, I get half of the money, and the winner gets the other half.” Also, George repeatedly mentioned that he has now retired, which allowed me to believe that he may secretly be a wealthy ecolodge owner in Costa Rica.
Since it’s quite impossible to know much about the factual information on George Lin, one can only find out more about his character by observing him and interacting with him. So far, we have discovered that George Lin is known to have chronic knee pains, and a serious problem with dirt allergies (not very ideal while being a naturalist), which ultimately leaves him to “break out in craziness.” These problems have restricted him from participating in various activities such as salsa dancing and planting trees. Further on, George has been passionate about the environment since he was a child, as he would cross the rice fields in front of his house to get to his school he would admire the snakes that slithered around his feet.
George’s passion for the environment is seen in some ways as an “extremist” view. When we asked George about what he cares the most about in his life, he answered “the environment” following the answer with “if I could eliminate 80…95% of the world population, I would… It’s the only way to save the environment.” After doing a little research, I came to the realization that there are such humans that believe they are the most significant species on the planet, which could lead to a distraction of the environment, these people are known as being Anthropocentrism (i.e. Charlie Sheen). Despite his extremist views on the environment, George has a great relationship with the students in the UGA Costa Rica campus, especially the ones that complain about the technology and wi-fi on campus. George, or as some of his fellow colleagues call him “George of the Jungle,” enjoys looking after the students as he shows them around the trails and loves making sure that they don’t “poke around things that they should not be touching.”
No one really knows much about George Lin, his mysterious character and sarcasm makes it near to impossible to interview him, let alone right an article on him. Yet, the UGA Costa Rica campus would not be the same without him. George Lin has been the center of many conversations. He’s the man full of mysteries, the man with charming sarcasm, the man that will always, ALWAYS, have the best answers in Card Against Humanity. Yet, to all the students in the UGA Costa Rica campus, he will be remembered as the man that remained ageless.
