Ich bin eine Person, die in der Welt lebe

"Ich bin eine Person, die in der Welt lebe" I am a person who lives in the world. Earlier in the semester, I wrote a paper for my German course about the subject of national pride. I have posted this paper, which for those of you who can read German, then you will already have the idea of my feeling toward the idea of national pride. But for the rest of you, well then keep reading.

Tonight I went to stammtisch, the German conversation table, which is basically a gathering of people in Madison who can speak German. Anyways, after a year and a half of German, I have conversational skills to actively participate in it. Tonight was a short stammtisch, I arrived around 9:30 or so and left about an hour later, as everyone else also was going back home. So I got on the 80 Bus, a free campus bus that drops off a short walk from my apartment. My mind had just spend an hour around intensive German, and I sat down on the bus and for a moment my own language seemed foreign being spoken all around me, because I was in German-mode. I began to think about going to Germany, which in a few months I will. Will that happen when I come home? Will I get into English speaking land and have to step back a moment and remember what language I must be in?

Now you must be thinking by this point, "What does this have to do with national pride" Well, to be honest, not much, but it directed my thoughts to the subject not long after. As I waited for the bus to depart and then consequently arrive at my stop, I began to think about my feelings about being an American. It is no secret to those that know me, that I do not care whether or not I live in America. And in many ways, I seek not to. But the question I ask myself is, "why?". I was born and raised in America. I am an American. So why would I want to leave?

I believe the answer to this is that I do not think of my self as an "American" nor would I think of my self as any other nationality if I lived somewhere else. I feel only that I am a person on this Earth. I will be that same person anywhere on this planet, so it is not a requirement to live out the rest of my life solely in America as an American. The rest of the world may not agree with me, but if I moved to another country I would not be "American", I am just living in a different corner of the world going about my life. In fact, even now, why should I label myself as purely "American"? How about we don't give me any title. I am me, no matter where I am.  For me it makes the choice of leaving the US not a difficult decision, it would be not different than moving to a different state in some respects (besides the most obvious details).

In the last year or so, I have been introduced to more of the world than I have been in my whole 22 years of life. I believe this has really made a significant change on how I view the world and those that reside in it. Which can easily be pin pointed as a main reason for the beliefs which encompass the reason for this post. The more "foreign" people that I meet, the more it solidifies my believe that we are all just humans in the world living our lives. Yes, we have cultural differences and what not, but on a fundamental level, we are basically the same and our lives involve many of the same core elements. It is because of the fundamental pieces of human hesitance, that I began to form the belief on national pride. I can not love my country and the things in in it (including the people) less than any other country in the world, because every country encompasses that same fundamentals at the core, despite obvious differences. We are all just humans living in the world.

I am not American, or German, or English or any other nationality. I am a person. I am a person of this Earth, I was born in America, but it is not a cement block holding me in place. I am worldly. I can be anywhere and I am still just a person of the Earth. nothing more. nothing less.