Grab yourself a map and place your finger on the center of the United States. Congratulations. You just squished my hometown. It's not much, but it was a decent enough place to grow up. It seems like rural folk tend to have a deeper connection to nature also, something I really cherish. That said I've since lived in Beijing and Jaipur also. So while I love nature, I'm as comfortable as a sardine as I am a lone whale. What motivates a fish like me? Hmm, I would say my insatiable curiosity. I want to know this universe, this little blue green sphere of ours, its crags and valleys, and the wondrous creatures plodding around on it. I want to know you and I want to know myself and I've found that the more I explore the former, the more I understand the latter.