When will America be your home

What did John Lennon say? "All we need is Love"? And this is probably true, if you only apply this formula to different aspects of life: love for a person, for children, for work, for friends, and including love for the country where you came to live. I have loved America for a long time. But to feel at home in America, I think everyone needs to go through a few things. So, in order.

Фото: Depositphotos

1. You need to feel that you are not going anywhere from here. Your travels and immigration are over. Your angle here

My life experience in the USSR was connected, first of all, with the school and university where I studied. I left already in my third year and therefore I won’t talk much about the university, but the school will forever remain in my memory as a big black spot of continuous conflicts and bullying. I’ll say it briefly: in a Soviet school you can’t be smart, you can’t be a Jew, and you can’t express your opinion. Otherwise, you become enemy number one. And due to a pure misunderstanding of how the Soviet system works, I got involved in this process of confrontation. I think in the end it only made me stronger, braver and more seasoned. At the same time, I realized that hiding from offenders is not an option. But if you give them the dowry change with all your Jewish soul, they will begin to respect you. You still need to defend your opinion not only verbally, but also with your fists.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that there is a country where you don’t have to be afraid to stand upright. Moreover, Soviet newspapers did not understand that you could even learn to read them correctly. Everything they called lies was true. Everything they scolded could be safely praised. Everything they doubted could be taken on faith almost automatically. Therefore, even in this totalitarian-closed country, those who wanted to know knew. And I literally wanted to know from the age of 7 how I went to school. My grandfather in Riga helped with this, of course. Day and night he listened to enemy voices that were caught in Riga on the waves of the Mayak station. From there I learned things that no one even discussed. Therefore, the contrast between the two countries in my perception was formed precisely then.

Here you want to izordovat just for the questions and your desire to know. And there they give you any information in their hands, because the truth does not need to be hidden.

And now, after many years, I got off the plane in America. The one about which I read so much and was heard. This, of course, was an ordinary country, with ordinary people, ordinary needs. It has almost the same order of life as everywhere else. But you can be yourself in it. It is possible to find the truth in it and for it will not be planted. In it, you can be in opposition and you will not rot in prison and will not be beaten on the street for it.

I do not know how for you, but for me it was the very ideal that I have been striving for all my life. Despite the purely domestic difficulties of the early years of immigration, the feeling that I will not go anywhere further, was literally from the first day with me. There is no need to look for anything else. The Odyssey is over - this is the happy ending. Now everything depends only on you and no one else.

Фото: Depositphotos

2. It will be good or bad for you here, but you will fight only for this country, against external and internal enemies, because this is where you are guaranteed the search for happiness. And the one who searches always finds

Each of us must always stand guard over the achievements of the country. We must keep abreast of the times, while remaining as faithful as possible to the principles laid down in the American Constitution, which the founding fathers wrote in the 18 century.

Do you think that the Soviet Bolsheviks or Nazis in Germany went to power with calls to mix the country with shit and to ensure that they would become a negative example for the whole world? Of course not. They really thought about how to make their countries better, and killed with ideology in their head, although in the end they didn’t even know what they were doing. And the repetition of this is possible at the present time.

With external enemies, everything is relatively clear. There are several countries that still persist in their heresy, trying to find some other model of moving forward, different from the Western one. Most likely, with a 99,9% probability, they will someday understand that they wasted their energy in vain on reinventing the wheel. The great Western civilization today is the only and best example of all possible. All these attempts to create some kind of original and very spiritual alternative, even built on many thousands of years of history, are doomed to failure.

With internal enemies everything is much more complicated. They may not be enemies at all, but simply people with a much more conservative opinion. On the one hand, it is good that different citizens of the country have different visions of the country’s development, since this is another sign of freedom. But on the other hand, you cannot get stuck in constant explanations of obvious things for those to whom they are not at all obvious. This is marking time. Therefore, to combat these phenomena, you need to constantly educate yourself, find new solutions, be flexible and calm. After all, the work of building a state begins with each of us.

3. You will not leave this country at the moment when it will be bad and will need your help and participation.

Do you know that in the former USSR we were called sausage immigrants? So they did not subtly hinted that people were leaving their beloved Motherland for another country purely for the sake of material well-being, but as soon as any problems arose there, they would immediately leave it and move on. Make yourself a tumbleweed.

Some, indeed, consider it quite normal not to dwell on one country, but to think about further development depending on the life situation. And that is their business. But there are people like me who believe that Exodus should be one. Because not only the material drives us somewhere. Very much depends on the environment.

Фото: Depositphotos

I wrote in the first paragraph what surrounded me in the USSR. And when America gave you the opportunity to get on your feet, became your home, became the birthplace of your children, then perhaps you should be grateful for that. And this gratitude can be expressed by the fact that in the event that there may be difficulties in the country, not to run away from them, but to help put everything in order. Behave not like a temporary tenant, but like an owner. Because when people like me came here, we realized that we had finally found our corner. And it should not be given as an insult to anyone, anywhere. After all, no one has canceled the concept of karma - you cannot abandon your friends, family, neighbors, or your country in trouble. So far they have not demanded anything from us in response, but each of us must know that the day when our help is needed may come and we must be ready to repay our debts.

4. Understand that America is an absolutely unique country and accept american lifestyle

America is a global, new Western-style civilization that has absorbed and built on the best ideas and experiences that have been developed around the world. But at the same time, America offered its own view of life. America has its own design, its own food, absolutely its own holidays, its own climate and nature. In America, they quite deliberately remained with imperial measures of length, weight, and volume. Here they prefer the Fahrenheit temperature scale rather than Celsius. It has its own kitchen. Its own theater, cinema, music, prose, poetry. The architecture here is very different from all others. There is a very businesslike, methodical approach to business and work. They value their time here. Here they live by laws, not by concepts.

Those immigrants who do not resist this new way of life adapt more quickly. They will quickly become comfortable with a pound of weight and a gallon of liquid. They will understand that 95 degrees is too hot, 40 is too cold, and 76 is great. They will find a favorite bakery somewhere near their home, and will constantly buy their favorite bread there. They will try American ice cream, yoghurt, sausages, cheese, cooking and suddenly find out that in America they can cook and the food here is quite tasty.

Фото: Depositphotos

They will find out that it is very convenient when you get gasoline and do not need to get out of the car and get dirty, especially on the way to work. American road signs will suddenly take a more correct place in the head, because they are many times lighter than European ones. Having come to any library, they will no longer be surprised that they can easily order a book from another state for free if it is not available here. When ordering in an American restaurant, they will not faint from a gigantic portion, which they will be served and which will be enough for two.

All this and much more must be put in your head, try, smell, feel, be surprised and then be surprised again and only then it will cease to be a stranger. That's when you arrived.

5. Need to start a family

In America, especially in suburbia, it was as if God himself had ordered a family and have children. A woman will make a home a house, and children will fill it with joy.

Фото: Depositphotos

It is a very special feeling for an immigrant to send his children to an American school. Seeing their happy faces, hearing them all sing songs about Christmas and Hanukkah together. How they go as a class to the cathedral for the Catholic confirmation of children at the age of 12 or sit together in the synagogue at bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. How the concept of the internationality of the world, which is entirely represented in America, is invested in them from a very early age. It is invested not with empty phrases and incomprehensible actions, as in the USSR, but as it should be - with stories and demonstrations that we are all different, but we are all united.

Children from the very beginning instill tolerance to the differences of life. Understanding that there are people with disabilities and they need help. Accepting the thought that there are sexual minorities and they are the same people. They are shown different traditions and cultures of nations, ethnic groups, religions. They form the concept that a person with a different skin color is the same as himself. They are inculcated with a love for animals and the environment and an understanding that it should be protected.

All this is done by a kind, wise and gentle method. No shouts and orders. Without ideological manuals. Without marching under the emptiness of patriotic songs.

Seeing this and comparing with how we lived, I want to literally cry for joy, it is at such moments that you understand how right you did that you left that nightmare.

Фото: Depositphotos

6. You need to try to understand American games - baseball and American football.

America has its own cultural characteristics. If, again, not to resist them, but to try, at least try, understand, then much acquires a completely logical meaning. For example in America its kind of football. Other non-international games like lacrosse and baseball are also played here. They even have such an unprecedented sport and entertainment as pushball.

And having come at least once to a match in these sports, it is impossible not to become infected by the general enthusiasm of the fans around. These trips to the games in America are a kind of action and tradition. For example, during the national American football cup (Super Bowl), Americans organize entire multi-hour feasts at home, to which they invite friends and relatives.

Фото: Depositphotos

7. You need to feel the American auto industry. It has its zest, which no other machine will not give

The American auto industry is exactly the same national feature. Despite a number of differences between it and many others, there is something inherent only in America. An American car, almost always large and comfortable, often with the ability to drive not only on roads, but also off-road, is a continuation of the American traditions of discovering America and the Wild West, where every man and woman had to be able to ride a horse. Add to this the fact that outside of large cities, almost every family has a personal weapon, which is part of American culture, and you begin to understand the American love for “muscle machines.” There are plenty of Americans who simply love to spend their days off tinkering with their car and improving it with various bells and whistles. They also offer a range of workshops and spare parts stores. Your neighbor, who in oil-smeared clothes will lie under an old car all day long or stick out from under the hood - this is a very respectable sight by local standards. Indeed, in ordinary life, this person can be a very successful banker or lawyer and live in an expensive house.

Фото: Depositphotos

All this comes from the fact that Americans are very mobile. They live on average only 9 years in one place. And there is no tragedy for them to move to another city, to another state. It was also in America that travel by car was invented and perfected. And if there is also a trailer, then that’s great. Millions of Americans travel by car every year. And not only in America itself, but also in Mexico and Canada. The American dollar is accepted in any store in Mexico or Canada, where almost any cash register specifically has an instant conversion function at the latest rate. Therefore, seeing American license plates somewhere far in the south of Mexico is a common thing. This is also one of the traditions.

And so you can talk and talk endlessly. Although it seems to me that already this, the main thing that I have listed, will lead you from the state of an immigrant to the state of a permanent resident who cannot help loving this. Someone to this love for the country will come by itself, and someone will accept it through his experience from what he saw and experienced. The main thing is not to resist and have the courage to tell yourself that you are here forever.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Immigration to the USA: five stories of people who won the green card

How to live illegally in Manhattan and travel around the country: the experience of Russians

"I am married to a Russian": the revelations of American husbands

Why i like brighton beach

Three stories of Americans who moved to Russia

Their own and others: the Russian about life in New York

About Russians in America

What questions can you ask at the border, if you often fly to the USA

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.