Patriotism

I suck at patriotism. All day, my facebook wall has been filled with "happy 4th of July" and "woo USA" type stuff (and seriously everyone, it's only mid-afternoon here, and I'm 6-10 hours ahead of the States. Don't any of you sleep?) Sure, I love my home, but I don't feel the team spirit that Independence Day kind of revolves around. And when I think about loving my home, I really mean my family.

I am not proud of myself for being American; that's just an accident of birth. While growing up in the US certainly gave me a ton of advantages, and presumably shaped my personality to some extent, it seems weird to be proud of it. I guess I think that place of birth is inherently neutral; it's simply information, not a value. While being American makes me more privileged, more educated, and richer than most of the world's population, it doesn't really make me better. Lucky to have grown up in a country where liberty and self determination are valued, at least theoretically, but that's it. Just lucky. Just like I'm lucky to live in the age of the internet, and in an age where feminism already exists. But I'm not all proud of being a member of Gen Y either. So I've never been all that in to this particular holiday. I enjoy fireworks displays, sure, but because they're pretty, not because I'm on team USA.

This is probably why I've never enjoyed sports culture too. Apparently I suck at team spirit in general, which is funny, considering how much I enjoy teamwork. Although I can remember the occasional project team in undergrad that was all "we're the awesomest at this project!" and I thought that was stupid too.