Citizen of the World, Part 1: My country tis of thee

The decision to spend my freshman year as a college student abroad was not made lightly. Many people warned me about “culture shock,” the uneasy feeling that comes from being in a new place, surrounded by people whose way of life is different than my own. And so, I tried to prepare myself.

In the days and weeks leading up to my journey, I did additional reading about the English monarchy, tried to learn the proper English etiquette, and even set myself to memorizing the British national anthem. I was a bit surprised when I discovered that it has the same or very close tune to “My Country Tis of Thee”, but I was so caught up in the fervor of my fast approaching trip that I could not give it much attention.

My plane landed at Heathrow Airport in London on August 27.  So far, I have tried a Kit Kat bar that was only slightly different from an American Kit Kat bar.  Walking through a park, the natural contours remind me of Greenville Park, in my hometown in Darke County, Ohio where if not for the centuries-old castle I could see in the distance… that the irony of it struck me.  When I stick out my arm in order to point out something to a classmate… half the time it is because it is foreign to me but the other half, it is because it is so outrageously familiar— and familiarity was the last thing I was told to expect.

Contrary to everything I pictured, Britain does have Papa Johns and McDonalds, and BLTs, and books, not just Harry Potter, but all the wonderful American authored stories that I love and was loathe to leave on my shelves at home.  I even found Mt. Dew while wandering about Chinatown with my relatives, Josephine and Jennifer, who welcomed me on my first day into the country despite warnings before my departure from the United States that “there’s no Mt. Dew in London”.

It drives home the point that the world has gotten small—that this island in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean is infused with so many representations of other cultures— that so many people from all parts of the globe have found England their home — and probably not altogether dissimilar from the one they left behind.

Technology and modern equipment have made products and ideas travel over airwaves, over and under the sea faster and faster.  It is so easy for individuals to journey much further. And people… people are learning that they have more in common than differences with the rest of humanity.  We all wake up in the morning to go to work or school, we delight in the taste of sweets and we all look at the sky as one way of checking for changes in the weather. With all that in common, there’s little difference about which side of the road is the “right” side really.  It just doesn’t matter as much.

I am a natural born US Citizen, and I am proud of that citizenship.  I am however, half-Filipino by blood.  It is also important to recognize something vital about myself …. that I am also a citizen of the world!