Tuesday, June 29, 2010

How moving to my "native country" suddenly made me German...

It recently occurred to me that Sunday is the 4th of July and general convention dictates that I should have plans for the 4th of July. I don't think it matters what kind of plans - just that they exist and somehow make this day different from all others.
People have asked me what we do for the 4th of July in Germany. I generally answer something to the effect of, well if it's a weekday, we do normal weekday stuff and if it falls on a weekend we do weekend stuff.
They usually look confused for a minute or two.
Then understanding sets in and they say, oh yeah that's right, you don't have 4th of July in Germany. I generally cannot help myself but reply, uh, yeah we do. It comes right after July 3rd and until now has always been followed by July 5th - at least to my knowledge.
Though who knows, if Germany looses to Argentina on the 3rd, the world may end and there may really not be a 4th of July in Germany. Okay, I"ll admit, the main reason my parents have managed to swear off watching any World Cup Games this year has to do with the fact that I'm not around to turn the TV on. I like soccer. And when it comes to soccer, I will always stick with Germany. Always have, always will, even when they go head-to-head with the US. I'm invested in the outcome, to the extent that I'll watch the game, cheer if they ("we") do well, groan and roll my eyes if they ("they") start doing stupid stuff.  If they win I'll be there for the semi-finals and if they loose... well then they loose.
Actually, I think soccer is the only part of my life, I've actually chosen a country, national/cultural identity if you so will.
Interesting fact(s):
For two decades I was "the American", I had to deal with people mispronouncing my name, people making fun of American stereotypes, being criticized for whatever our former president came up with,... though for the most part, people close to me accepted that I was just me.
For two years on the ship I was "and Shannon..." during our parade of nations (sidenote: PON, which I usually avoided because it confused people to have me in them... had funky music and one by one people would walk on stage in their national costume being introduced as "Akira from Japan, representing the USA Anna-Marie, etc), after people began to accept (after initial hesitation and insisting that one HAD TO BE FROM ONE COUNTRY) that I was just me both German and American and neither.
All of the sudden, I have become German. People ask me where I'm from I usually say I grew up in Germany despite my US Passport. I've never really implied I was German. People are generally surprised by my lack of an accent and I always explain that with both my parents being American we always spoke English at home. But interestingly enough, from several people that I'd known and spent a lot of time with after about half a year they all the sudden were confused about my non-Germanness. (other people on the other hand played rugby with me for half a year and never wondered why people referred to me as "the German").
I don't really care, nor am I particularly bothered. I'm way past cultural crises. I'm still just me, and I reckon at the rate I'm going (and the places I'm might still be interested in going to), things aren't going to get any more simple. But then I've never been, anyway (it's okay, I know what you were all just thinking). Though I do think that sometimes it bothers me how quickly people are ready to "box me" and others up and put a cute little label on it.
Maybe what bothers me more, is the fact that they're are so willing to restrict themselves to their own little box - forgetting minor details such as that while "July 4th" does exist in every other country, it's of little to know importance to them. We're talking about the Birth of a Nation - and there's quite a bit happening beyond that.
Maybe what bothers me is that people are so quick to be content with what is right before their eyes. Yes, I understand that "stereotypes" can be helpful in an initial assessment of the situation, and I love making jokes based on stereotypes (I don't believe in political correctness, it just makes life boring), in my own respectful way. But there is so much more to the world and to people than what initially meets the eye. People and their stories can be so interesting. It usually only takes a little bit of thinking , a few logical steps and deductions to gain a world of understanding. Why is it, that people generally don't think things through? It seems that most people's world ends at the edge of their soup bowl.
I mean really, with a name like Shannon O'Leary how German could I really be?

6 comments:

  1. Can I just cut and paste your post to my blog? :) Besides a few minor differences in your story, I felt like I was reading my own thoughts.
    I thought of you yesterday... remembering the 4th of July in Mozambique (2005, is that right?)...
    I miss you my fellow Germerican!
    It's probably silly to let it get to me too much, but it really bugs me how quickly people will put me in a box, and it's never the right one, because there isn't really one. :)
    Anyway, enjoy your day, wherever you are!!!

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  2. yes! I was just looking at my Doulos scrapbook the other day and saw our group picture from the 4th of July! Actually I enjoyed my Doulos-independence-Days because there were always a few fellow fake-Americans to bond with :-)

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  3. More insight:

    I was born in New York and never felt the same as the third-generation Vermonters I grew up with, what with my acquired accent and the fact that going to NYC ("The City") was more of a weekend trip than an exotic vacation to the concrete jungle.

    Living in New York as an adult, I'm a Vermonter. I'm proud of our public schools, gay marriage, and the way people tell me I'm so nice. But the New Yorkers still like to explain to me certain bridges, boroughs and cities. "Yeah, I know. I went to summer camp there."

    In Argentina, I'm whoever I want to be. I was a New Yorker, or a Vermonter, now I'm just from the northeastern US. No cab driver wants to hear my life story, but they enjoy knowing if they've ever learned about my hometown.

    But the more I'm away, the more I change, and the more I lose my gringa accent, the less I even feel like una estadounidense (United States-ian). I'm definitely not an American, because America is an entire continent.

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  4. yeah, sometimes going away gives you much more opportunity to change and "find yourself"... because surprisingly even people at home, the people you grew up with and who are supposed to know you best have actually boxed you up and labeled you and they like you the way you are and are afraid that if they let you change there will no longer be that comfort of (thinking they) knowing you...
    I enjoy embracing my inner American, my inner Irish person as well as my inner German ... wish people could be more willing to celebrate diversity and differences than to just focus on things that keep us apart.
    Though I also think it's a great thing to be proud of what your "history" is... I may not be a very patriotic person in a traditional way (though I completely understand and "approve" of people who love their country and are very secure in their cultural identity... they know who they are just as much as I do, though we anchor ourselves in something else), I am very proud of the family I've come out of, I guess my cultural identity as an O'Leary?

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  5. I just wrote a really long comment that got deleted by the Error 503.
    :(

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  6. oh error 503... why dost thou make your lives so complicated.

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