Individualism is the first quality that Althen discusses, and this is something I can definitely see within my family. When my older sister graduated high school, she didn't really go to college. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life yet, but she did know one thing: she had a burning desire to get out of our parents' house and live on her own. By the time I was even half way through my next year of school she had been working a full time job, saved up money, and rented a house out with three other people. Paying rent, utilities, food, gas, and living expenses was a huge financial burden on her. Instead of saving her money by living at home, she moved out and had to struggle and work hard simply because her sense of individualism was so strong, she felt like being 18 years old meant it was time to move out, no matter the cost.
Another value that Althen discusses is competitiveness. Althen describes, "...Americans naturally see themselves as being in competition with others. Competitiveness persuades the society,"(7). I see this value in my life from playing sports, academic rankings, and or even just playing board games. However, this quality doesn't really apply to me. A large part of the reason I chose to stop playing sports was because I did not have the competitive nature in me to be the best, and I had a hard time understanding my teammates in that way. Similarly, I never cared about class ranking as long as I knew I was doing my best work, but nearly all of my friends were always stressed about stayin
g in the top twenty rankings. I never see myself in competition with others, it just is not one of my values. I value pushing myself to do the best that I can in all of my pursuits without feeling like my work is somehow beneath or above someone else's.
I totally relate to your point about wasting time when watching TV or doing something you enjoy. Especially in college, when there always seems to be something more important, like homework, going to a meeting, going to a social event, or whatever. The enjoyment is definitely taken out of the activity knowing that there are more pressing concerns. In terms of individualism, I know a lot of people who also chose to work right after high school, who were done with school, and wanted to go off into the world. Many people questioned their choice, but they are doing fine now. As Americans, we do what our heart tells us to, no one else.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree when it comes to independence. I wrote about my sister in my own blog, who traveled across the United States to go to college because she felt like she needed to be independent and leave home so she could become an adult. It's certainly a very strange thing, that at age 18, give or take a few years, we feel like we should now be able to manage things on our own. We have so much to learn, but instead of learning those things in a familiar environment, we learn them on our own, through trial and error, and expect everyone else to do the same. It's bizarre. I also agree with you wholeheartedly when it comes to time. I never want to waste my time, and feel frustrated when it feels like I'm doing pointless, busy work with no real thing to gain from it. Also, in this modern society, sometimes I feel like I'm wasting time if just enjoying the moment, not on my phone or doing work of some sort. It's very irritating, but I can't help but try to fill up that space with something I feel like I need to do.
ReplyDeleteI really relate to your struggle with time. When I give myself free-time, I often ask myself if I could be doing something more productive with my time. I often think about what I could be studying, or how I could get ahead. While it's important to prioritize school, I think that designating free-time to do the things you love is also important. Without exercising our passions, I think that I would be burned-out in school. I constantly have to remind myself that it's okay to take a break!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really weird finding out how foreigners view Americans, growing up we are surrounded by other Americans so we never really notice how our society is different from the rest of the world. Finding out our values and assumption from Althens was eye opening because I related to pretty much all of them. When you mentioned how you couldn't relate to the competition that takes over a majority of Americans life I was like wow respect because I am definitely are very competitive person and I can tell when it begins to take over my life and sometimes keeps me from doing other things in life that are worth while. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteI am French, I come from an entirely French family, went to a bilingual school until middle school, but I have lived in the United States my entire life. Due to this, I could easily see some of the differences that Althen mentions in this chapter. One of the main things that I had never really considered is the need for moving out once graduating from high school. I suppose my American and French backgrounds overlapped to the point where I felt like after high school, I needed to make sure I had plans and that I was able to do things on my own, which is what an American 18-year old would think about too. However, unlike your sister, I don’t think I would go through that much burden at my age to move out and be on my own like other Americans. My French culture would not come in and say, hey, if you don’t have the means to be on your own, don’t worry, we have your back. Yes, I am an independent person, I like to do things my own way and not rely on others, however, I know that if something does not work out, I can always go back home or ask for help and not have the American “guilt” or “embarrassment” or whatever a normal American would call this.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that being competitive was considered an American value. I thought it was a value that most cultures would have. I think competition is good for a culture because it makes people work harder at what they do. Also, whenever I visited a different country or people from different cultures it never occurred to me that competitiveness was not a part of their culture. I also think that it is okay for people to not feel the need to compete because that is their choice and different people have different opinions. Also individualism is a american value that I can relate to because I the idea that a person can achieve what they want without other people is important as it makes people work their hardest without having to rely on others to help them too much.
ReplyDeleteMy family is split in half, half lives in the states, and the other half in Mexico. It is actually pretty insane how different my family from Mexico is from my family here. Thinking about our differences and the reasoning behind them makes much more sense having read this weeks reading. Even more so through my college experience thus far! Two of my roommates are from different states and I have noticed slight culture differences and that's still within the states so of course people from different countries will be very different in may ways.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your opinion on time as a resource. Time causes me so much stress induced by the fear of it running out without having done everything you planned to do. It is this unattainable thing that we as humans made up and it controls our life and how we live. At the same time, without having a standardized system of keeping time, what would the world be like? There's an interesting idea.
I Haven't been outside the United States either, and I had a similar reaction to Althen's words. I agree that competitiveness is extremely important. We are always told to do best which means you have to do better than someone else. From sports to athletics, competition is everywhere. Often times it's something dumb like "You can't eat more food than me". I also agree with how you value time. I was taught time is the one thing you can never get back, and I have cherished it ever since. With that has definitely come the stress of "am I using my time wisely?"
ReplyDeleteAmanda! I really liked your response. I could relate to what you had said about your sister since my own older sister was pretty much the same when it came to individualism. She too struggled to make it on her own after moving away from home, trying to balance work and college with her social life (and not very successfully). She'd always been very independent of my parents, but I never really realized her desires for individualism until I read Althen's work.
ReplyDeleteI can also relatte to your discussion of sports, as I have never been a very competitive person. I really admired you when you said you do the best you can without feeling inferior as compared to others, I'm practically incapable of looking at my work positively after seeing what others have done.