trying to be american

8:19 AM

In the middle of last winter, I found The Notebook uploaded onto YouTube in ten nine-minute segments. I sent the video link of the first part of the movie to a friend, with a poll that asked Who's currently watching The Notebook right now? The poll had one answer choice.

I have the same dilemma as other ethnic people do in America: How do I become more American? Because being born here just doesn't seem enough sometimes; somehow, it seems as if I'm always one step behind on culture. So that's how I ended up watching a romance at 2 AM.

According to comedian Russell Peters, his father posed the same question. And one night, Peters said, his old man figured out how to become a Canadian. "We will have a barbeque," he said. So they had a barbeque with the neighbors, and a younger Peters watched his dad char hamburgers and "hoddogs." Halfway through the backyard social, his dad beckoned him over and asked him to look at the mesh in the grill. "Why is the rice falling through?" asked his dad.

Trying to become more Western hemisphere isn't easy, especially when most people around you tell you to calm down after you enthuse about Thanksgiving, your first Metallica CD, the Superbowl, Manhattan and Chicago. I've tried dealing with this by celebrating with my own traditions. On Thanksgiving, I visit Golden Corral's supersized buffet. A month later, I walk to the drugstore on Christmas and buy premade gingerbread and pretend it's homemade. On New Year's, my mother tells me to stop wearing glitter and wait until February. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I give him a mental heyo. And if I have time to bake the day before, I hand out cookies on Valentines Day. And so on. July Fourth is a real kicker; I Google local parades online. It's the best I can do when no one will sit outside with me and a cooler.

In a red white and blue nutshell, I'm not very good at this. I American't.

2 comments

2 Comments:

 Emily Z. said on February 9, 2012 at 9:12 AM  

If it makes you feel any better, I'm about as stereotypically "American" as it gets, and I still get over-excited and geeky (shocker, I know) over holidays. Just do what you want to do, and remember that high school doesn't last forever.

P.S. I expect a cookie on Tuesday :)

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 SmittyAPLangsta said on February 10, 2012 at 2:37 PM  

What a tremendously well articulated reflection! Save this...it is the beginnings of a truly "boss" college application essay. Many colleges like to ask some question about diversity which often wind up yielding some of the most stilted writing samples ever. I think they do this so they can easily see the cream of the crop...and this essay would do that well. Thanks Ms. Zavitz for sharing this with me.

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