Happy Birthday America

This past week was the fourth of July. I woke up feeling exhausted and tired from a hard week, but then remembered what the date was and started to smile. I put on my red, white, and blue and left for work. I became very enthusiastic about a day that had not stirred up much excitement in me in the past.

Being the first generation of Americans in my family, as both of my parents are European, I have grown up with different traditions than most children raised in the South. I grew up putting a pillow case outside of my door for Santa Clause to fill with presents, and eating roast dinners on Christmas day. I am well aware of delicious foreign cheeses and choose baguette to pair with my meals. I had lullabies sung to me in French as a child, and traveled to Europe on many occasions to see family. Because of this I could never really relate to my friends who would have grits instead of crepes for breakfast, or would have huge family barbeques when part of my family was on another continent. I never even tried grits until I was 20 years old, and had no idea how to make sweet tea until I worked at Outback Steakhouse. For many of these reasons I felt like my heritage was not only American, but was very much European as well, so when July 4th came around I would feel excited about seeing fireworks but never felt that much pride in being an American.

Living in Korea for the past 11 months has really made me aware of how much I love my own country and its culture. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Korean culture, and admire many things about the way they live their day to day lives here. But on the other hand, I have been able to see how much I miss some of the basic freedoms and acceptance that I feel living in my home of America. I miss the freedom of saying how you feel, even if it's negative, and not being looked down upon. I miss working normal hours and being able to take sick days because your life does not revolve around your job. I miss being able to cry at work without it causing a serious issue. I miss the place where children with special needs are not ignored or looked at as broken, instead there are services in place to help them reach their full potential. I miss being able to talk about God to whoever I see, because living in the Bible belt means that acceptable. As much as I love Korean bbq, I miss a good ol' American bbq with hamburgers, hotdogs and mac n' cheese. Learning about so many different Asian countries while being abroad has made me have a more worldy view on issues, but also made me very happy that I was born in the States. Every country has its flaws, but I love my country along with all its flaws and whatever it needs to change.

I took so much pride in telling my children that it was 'America's birthday' and taking time to have them color American flags.

As much as the western world is idolized over here, now living outside of my own country helps me to see the appeal. I feel so proud to be from such a special place that offers so much opportunity and allows dreamers to defy the odds. The impossible does not seem so impossible in the land of the free, where you are encouraged to change your circumstances and many times change the world.

My new found patriotic mindset made me eager to celebrate this day! Just because we are not in the States, didn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to the date on the calendar. So my friends and I put together a good old fashioned American bbq and invited everyone over for a rooftop Fourth of July party.

We danced to country music, ate lots of mac n' cheese, and talked about home. All I could think was that I absolutely love to travel and learn about other countries, but I feel very blessed to call America my home. No matter how cultured you are, how much you embrace living abroad, or how much you submerse yourself in another countries culture and values, there is something special about what you consider home that sticks with you. America is my home, and I am so lucky that God decided I should grow up there. I finally see the pride that so many of my friends have had for years now, but it took me a year in an Asian country to fully understand it.

I am proud to be an American

where at least I know I'm free

and I won't forget the men who died

and gave that life to me

So I proudly stand up, next to you

and defend her still today

because there ain't no doubt I love this land

God bless the USA