08 Feb Patriotism

Before I got to the US I had a lot of preconceptions about how much Americans love their country. The majority of those preconceptions were right, but is that really something that does just apply to Americans?

After spending almost six months here I start to see why that is. First of all: the US (so far I know it) is a great place, what is it not to love about it? Of course: even the sun has its dark spots, but with four months to go before I need to head back to Europe I have already started to think about how I can get back here again, preferably ASAP. Second of all: is it really that uncommon by other nationalities to have a remarkable love for the home country?

Another thing that I have started to notice is how I proudly comment about things that comes from my homeland. If someone is using a different music streaming service than Spotify I immediately ask them why they do not use Spotify. If someone mention Skype I am quick to make it clear for everybody where Skype was created. If someone mention IKEA (yeah, you didn’t see this coming, did you?), put on Levels with Avicii or name drop Zlatan I feel some kind of weird pride to know that all of those things comes from the same place as I do.

Okay, this is to over exaggerate things but some kind of truth lies beneath it. Even if the ‘patriotism’ may be more subtle in some cases than others, I think it still exists in all of us. It is, however, easy to get caught up talking about the cons rather than the pros when you dig deeper in the political side of things, especially for those of us that have had the privilege to explore how it is to live in more than one political culture.

This is me as the casual American, Halloween 2014.