America, America

I didn’t realize how patriotic I was until I began to tear up during the National Anthem at the American Society’s 4th of July Party.

Living in the States, I pretty much ignored the significance of 4th of July most years. You got a day off of work. You got to see fireworks. I actually became desensitized to the fireworks at some point when in our downtown New York apartment, we could see three different fireworks displays from our bedroom windows.

But living out of the country, and now with child, the holiday means much more. The U.S. really kicked-a** for almost a century. And I believe it’s coming back. We’re too much of a rebellious, rambunctious, blindly confident crowd to fall to the wayside. The entire history of the nation is about working hard, believing in ourselves and going for what we want. We just got too confident… to cocky. But we’ll come around.

I feel similar about Brazil. The history here is much different, but this is a crowd that can weather a storm and come out smiling. They see what they want and they get it, just in a different way (a way I still haven’t been to grasp). There is confidence and drive here, and despite a melting pot similar to America, there is a culture here that is strong.

On a side note, the party also had an even bigger, scarier, blow-up slide than the Festa Junina party we went to (see Our First Festa (Fear) Junina). Sophia didn’t dare to attempt it. I was grateful, because more than once I watched the slide attendant stop a kid from shooting off the edge.