Thus when I headed south of the border again in early 1946, I did so not to seek romance or to immerse myself in learning about the country, but mainly because it was unconnected with my own personal background, and it seemed to be a likely environment wherein to start getting my head straightened out. Such an aspiration, of course, has characterized befuddled young Americans for a couple of hundred years or more, and has usually involved leaving their youthful precincts behind in favor of large cities or foreign lands, where many of them eventually fall into conformity with a new set of values, others are defeated by strangeness and go back home, and a few gain enough clarity of view to carry them on through life and whatever work they have in mind.
-- John Graves, Myself and Strangers
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