From newspapers, textbooks, conversations, I had learned to speak of countries as if they were eternal, singular, naturally occurring things, but I wondered: to say that I came from a country suggested that the country was an absolute, some fixed point in place in time, a constant thing, but was it?
Dari koran, buku pelajaran, percakapan, saya mempelajari negara seakan-akan mereka abadi, tunggal, hal yang alami, namun saya bertanya-tanya: dengan mengatakan saya berasal dari sebuah negara menunjukkan bahwa negara itu absolut, tempat yang tetap di suatu masa, hal yang konstan, tetapi apakah benar demikian?