Distance Makes the Patriotism Grow Stronger

When I left the United States, I thought six months was a long time. Now that I am in New Zealand, it is not nearly enough.

I have been here now for five months, and I have worked three jobs on two islands, hiked dozens of tracks and seen lakes, oceans, and mountains that would overwhelm the most unemotional of people. But I need to stay longer.

Yes, there are places I have not seen yet in this country, but the reason I want to stay is more about myself. People often talk about how much they learn when they travel to a foreign country, and when you live in one learning is unavoidable. When I was in college, I studied for six months in South Africa and felt like I had left a separate lifetime by the time I went home to the United States.

But in coming to New Zealand, I have had more freedom. I came here unemployed, with a tiny amount of savings, with no friends and my only knowledge of the country was what I got from a small guidebook. For me, arriving here was terrifying. I needed to find everything from scratch: a place to live, transportation, food, job, friends, entertainment.

Over the past few months, with every new thing I built, my confidence grew. I got a job. I moved into a room. I made casual friends. I made more long-lasting friendships too. After two months of working and saving money, I cut my newly-constructed safety net again. I quit my job and drove to a new city, and another, and another, soaking in the differentness of each place I visited. And with each bout of travelling and each new home I made, I made different mistakes and learned how to avoid them in the future.

When I first came to New Zealand, I was afraid to talk to people from different countries, worrying about what we could have in common. In my first job, when I met my Kiwi co-workers, I felt a little insecure. My co-worker, Luke, smoked cigarettes and talked about the Bob Dylan concert he was going to in a few weeks. Bree and Sonya wore chic leather jackets and dark sunglasses. I thought to myself how they all seemed so cool and confident.

Listening to their foreign accents and interests, I wished I was a Kiwi. I spent a few weeks listening to everything they said, and when I did speak it was to compliment their accents or their clothes or what they thought. And then one day it hit me: Bob Dylan is American. Many of the things my co-workers liked were from America, and I felt proud. Proud that my country produced things that reach all the way around to the edge of the world. Proud to be American myself.

One of my friends from high school, Ryan, told me once that I should stop thinking so much and just treat people as people. The same as me. I did not hear him clearly at the time, but in New Zealand I was forced to makes friends and meet new people every day. After talking to people from at least 30 different countries all traveling or living in New Zealand, I understand the truth in what Ryan said. There are generalizations about people from every country, and there are always dozens of people that will tell you what they think about a race of people whether you ask or not.

But after meeting people from all over the world and talking to them individually, all I see is their humanness. Every person I meet seems very different at first until I talk to them a few times, and I realize how many similarities they have to me. Their longing for adventure and new things or their hope for a future with a well-paying job they enjoy, a partner, a family, and possibly even more traveling.

And after five months in New Zealand, I can finally say I understand that and am confident that I could make friends in any country. Even if I only knew parts of their language. And having that knowledge and that ease of mind, makes further travel more exciting.

I still miss my home in the United States. I miss it very much. And the longer I am away, the more I love the United States for things as little as having at least 60 different choices of breakfast cereal and cheap t-shirts and for bigger things like the dozens of large, prosperous cities that offer opportunities. But if I had not left America to work in another country, I would not love the U.S. to the degree to which I love it now. When I meet new people and they ask me what the U.S. is like, I tell them they need to go.