I am Canadian, through and through. I believe that pancakes without maple syrup is an abomination and winter isn’t really winter unless it’s -40c outside (that’s -40f for you Americans). I pronounce sorry, like “sore-ry” and I call the restroom the washroom. I am fully aware that the best timbit at Tim Horton’s is the sour cream glazed. To me “icing” isn’t just what you top cakes with but also a rule in hockey. Thanksgiving is in October and the best day to go shopping is Boxing Day. I love Canada because hey, Canada is great eh?
I do enjoy my homeland however anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong, deep, infinite love for America. I am all about that apple pie, freedom and Jesus Christ (said with a southern accent). I have enough Star Spangled Banner clothing and accessories to adorn an entire American marching band.
On a hot summer’s day you can find me drinking a tall glass of sweet tea and jamming out to Zac Brown Band. I often belt out the American national anthem and I have publicly shouted “USA! USA! USA!” in every country I have visited. I love visiting the states and one of my goals is to move to Colorado Springs, Colorado. I have even messaged President Obama (love him) on Facebook and asked him for a Green Card. I love ‘Merica! (Said like how Brick says “I love lamp”.)
How did a little, peace loving, Canadian develope such strong feelings for the super power to the south, you may ask? Great question. Put on some sweat pants, pour yourself a cup of tea (or a glass of wine) and allow me to tell you..
Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, I spent an entire year traveling around the world. Most of my time was spent in Third World countries volunteering with various non-profits. I had a front row seat to all the shitty things that happen on this planet. I visited brothels in Asia and watched helplessly as young girls were sold to men three times their age. Giving out food and water to the homeless became a part of my daily routine. In South Africa, I visited townships that were set up during Apartheid due to the overbearing amount of racism in the country. They are still home to thousands. Visiting them gave me a clear picture of what hatred and ignorance can destroy. All over the world I played with children who lived in slums. I let them braid my hair and taught them how to use a camera. I met refugees from war torn countries and listened while they told stories about watching their homes, towns and families being blown up. To say that my young eyes have seen a lot would be an understatement.
Before heading back to Canada for Christmas, my last stop for my year around the world was the beautiful country of Ireland. My best friend (an American) and I spent three weeks exploring and attempting to catch leprechauns.
Ireland was everything I had hoped it would be, cozy pubs filled with nice people, good cider and live music, the greenest grass I have ever seen being eaten by adorable little sheep and good looking men with great accents. Just when I thought Ireland couldn’t get any better, I walked passed a Starbucks and discovered that they had what I had been missing most of all – PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES and EGGNOG LATTES! I had never been so happy in my entire life. Well, it’s at least in the top 5.
This was AH-mazing for two reasons. Number one, I am a white girl. Do not be fooled by my tan skin folks, I am the whitest of white girls. Just call me Cass Basic D’Alessandro. Number two, I had just spent 11 months traveling the world, mostly sleeping on the floor and giving all of my time and energy to helping other people who are less fortunate. At that moment, Starbucks, pumpkin spice and eggnog were a little taste of home. They were the friends that I was reconnecting with after my amazing journey around the world. After being a foreigner for so long, they were the first things that felt familiar. And if that wasn’t enough, they reminded me of Christmas, which is my favourite time of year! I was so excited that I couldn’t choose which one I wanted, pumpkin spice latte or eggnog latte? I ended up ordering both of them, because “YOLO.” As we continued our day, I cherished every sip of my lattes and I was incredibly thankful for both of them.
However, my joy for my lattes was rudely interrupted by some unnecessary negativity.
One of my American traveling companions began critiquing my love for the coffee chain. “I can’t believe you are drinking Starbucks. We are in Ireland and you pick Starbucks of all places to get a coffee.”
I was still very satisfied with my coffee choices, but I understood her perspective on the situation. Ireland had a lot of unique cafes and different coffee chains to try and I picked Starbucks. However, she didn’t have the same year that I had had. The week before I was guzzling this pumpkin goodness, I was visiting Townships in South Africa. She was at her home in the U.S. So, I get how silly it must have looked to her, seeing this North American, white girl walking around the streets of Dublin with not one, but TWO Starbucks coffees. I looked like a token tourist, double-fisting 24-oz of corporate America. And while I do love exploring and trying new things, this was a rare exception.
I was still too happy to let her comment bother me. “Mmmhmmm pumpkin spice.” and “Mmmhmm eggnog” were the only two phrases I could mutter as I sipped and walked. However, she didn’t stop at her small comment. She then decided to go on and tell me why Starbucks is “the worst thing ever”, which slowly turn into her ranting about why America sucks. She made some valid points but I disagreed. “The only thing that America has ever made was McDonald’s and Starbucks. The U.S. is awful, we are only known for all big corporations, blah, blah, blah. We haven’t done anything good blah, blah, blah. We are just big cities.” Over the next couple of days, she would continuously make comments like these. We would be in a cute little pub listening to some folk music and she would say something like “You see? I wish the U.S. was more like this, we don’t have places like this, America is just not like this blah blah blah.”
And for reasons unknown I became genuinely offend, feeling the need to stand up for a country that was not even mine. It felt like she was bullying my sibling and I did not like it. After traveling to 23 different countries and seeing how majority of the world lives, I found myself getting riled up every time she would make a snide comment. I wanted to explode. Finally, in the middle of one of her rants, I turned to her and said “America is great.” In that moment, my love for America was born.
All of her ‘Merica bashing got me thinking. Yes, America has done some pretty shady things that I personally don’t agree with. I don’t fully understand their politics, they are trillions of dollars in debt, they have some serious racism issues that they should probably address, they have really shitty health care and they spell words like “color” wrong, but despite all of that, America is a great country.
Think about all the technical advancements that have come from Americans- the car, the airplane, the dishwasher, clothes hangers, Beyonce and the internet..The INTERNET, people! The U.S. has plans to reach Mars, MARS LIKE THE PLANET. The entertainment industry would be garbage without America. Country music, jazz, rap and bluegrass probably wouldn’t be a thing. It has some beautiful scenery. The Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains and the Islands of HawaiI are just three beautiful parts of the States that have left me breathless. The United States has created strong leaders who have fought for things like women’s rights and racial equality. America represents freedom. It’s a land of opportunity where anyone can be whatever they dream to be.
Over the last few months I have started to hear similar comments about America coming from other Americans. It feels like every time I check Facebook or Twitter there is someone posting about how America is broken or how they need a strong leader to make America great again or how America needs to return to the “good ol’ days”. And once again I find myself getting riled up to the point where I want to explode. As I previously mentioned I am fully aware that America has problems, but it is certainly far from broken. (And sorry but it certainly doesn’t need misogynistic and racist leaders bringing it back to the stone age.) Over the past 240 years America has come a long way. It started out as colonists standing up for what they believed in, fighting for their independence from Great Britain, and after years of hard work and great people fighting for things like racial and gender freedom and making advancements in science and the arts, has turn into the superpower of the modern day.
It’s easy to let fear or a bad experience change our perspective on something. But don’t let anyone fool you, America is already great. I believe that if it continues to progress the way it has been for last eight years it will become even greater. #TellAmericaItsGreat
