Final entry. It's You're Identity Stupid

Final entry

It's You're Identity Stupid

Most people never get the opportunity to visit a place like China. These places usually become abstract distant ideas based on pictures, movies, and TV. The same was true for me as well. After having seen some of China, I base my idea of it on my experience.

I have mixed feelings on my full impression of China. On the one hand it is crowded, the air is bad, there is no such thing as forming a line many times, the weather in the summer is hot and made worse by the pollution, there is very little space, the food many times is greasy and oily, and it feels chaotic a lot of the time. On the other hand there is rich culture and history everywhere you go, the people really are friendly, there is so much to do and so many things to see, and there is never a boring day. However at the end of the day I truly have become accustomed to my life in the US and frankly I really like it a lot better than when I was living in China. The main thing that I like is just the feeling of peace. When In China, I felt as if my stress level was much higher. Frankly it is a chaotic place because so much development has happened so quickly without hardly any checks.

I guess that what I enjoy about the US is mainly how our infrastructure is more developed than that of China. I am grateful that I could go to China, but main thing I got out of the trip was a greater appreciation for the life that we have in the US. I really enjoy the life that I live here. I enjoy being able to communicate with just about everyone I see. I enjoy the familiarity. I enjoy just being able to be a part of this culture. It is really easy to see what I'm saying and think that I'm being superficial or shallow, but it just is my thoughts and I think that most people from the US would feel exactly the same way. It is most likely just an inherent part of our nature and part of how one associates himself or herself with his or her ethnicity and identity (in the sense of which group they belong to. So in my case it would be American).

Creating a new identity and feeling differently than the way I feel takes years of transition and in my opinion is probably never fully realized. I think no matter how cultured a person is or how well he or she thinks he or she has transitioned into a new lifestyle or culture, he/she will never enjoy it or feel as comfortable with it as he/she is with his/her mother country. The important thing is to learn about the other cultures that exist and become as much of a part of them as possible. One should take the good values and knowledge of other cultures to improve his/her own lives and the lives of others in his/her respective country. We live in a world of misunderstandings and misconceptions. Even though we can't really become others, we can find a way to be as much of a part of them as possible and know that they are only foreign because we don't put in the proper effort and energy to become a part of their world.


Explanation of pictures:
The pictures above depict the unbelievable amount of smog that seems to always linger in the air over China. I posted these pictures as a contrast to the seemingly clean air that we breath in the U.S.