So last Tuesday afternoon, I was staring at the news about this huge ship blocking the Suez Canal. Realized I had no clue how all those Middle Eastern countries actually connect to Asia. Grabbed my kid’s school globe, but couldn’t see squat with Europe and Africa crowding everything. Total headache moment.
How I Got Started
Dug through my old camping gear and found that wrinkled paper map from my Tokyo trip years ago – the one focusing only on Eastern hemisphere. Smoothed it out on the kitchen counter with coffee mugs holding corners down. Started tracing shipping routes with a blue highlighter from Singapore to Rotterdam. Weird how the Indian Ocean suddenly looked way larger than on regular world maps.
The Messy Part
Tried marking conflict zones with red dots. Ukraine looked totally different without the Americas hogging half the space. Saw how damn close Russia’s Pacific ports are to Japan and Alaska. Got distracted remembering how I confused Mumbai and Manila during a work call last month – facepalm moment. Had to Google current oil pipelines crisscrossing Central Asia. Wrote notes directly on the map borders with a shaky hand:
- Timezones make sense now: Tokyo & Sydney sharing daylight unlike London/NY split
- Population clusters: That giant blob from India through China holds more humans than everywhere else combined
- Trade choke points: Straight of Malacca suddenly obvious as global artery
Why This Bothers Me Today
Realized I’ve been thinking like a damn colonial-era European without knowing it. Regular world maps shrink Vietnam to thumbnail size while stretching tiny European nations. Saw TikTok blowing up about some island dispute between China and Philippines – now I get why everyone there cares. My neighbor’s kid enlisted in Navy, probably patrolling those exact waters next month.
Ended up buying pushpins to mark where my company ships electronics parts from. Stabbed pins through Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam. Supply chain looks like a spiderweb centered on East Asia. Took the whole damn map to my team meeting yesterday. Boss said “weird flex but ok”. Still glad I did it – feels like removing blinders after years.
