America Presented To Us

A while ago I wrote about the single-sided image that other nations often have of Romanians. Now I’ll try to present the story backwards: what we Romanians thought of America, and my actual experience of a little over ten years in the Western World. We’ve been fed a single story over here in Europe, about the easy riches and superior lifestyle in the West, about houses and cars and freedom of oppression. And those are not lies – but they are by no means the whole truth.

Photo Source:https://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/11/25/massachusetts-college-refuses-to-fly-american-flag-on-campus-for-a-truly-incredible-reason

You’ll Have A House And A Car In One Year
One year, two years, three years – it doesn’t matter, we heard it so many times before emigrating to Canada, that people went there and worked regular jobs and after a relatively short period of time, they were able to purchase their first home, together with an expensive vehicle. In Romania, at the time we were hearing these news (which was over ten, maybe fifteen years ago), there did not exist such a thing as mortgage. People owned their property, as the majority of them still do now, and very, very few ever rented. So that when you heard that someone bought a house, you’d assume they paid cash up front – which would be a marvelous feat indeed even for the upper class inhabitants of Canada and the US.

Photo Source:http://www.goliathinsurance.com/

No Extra Work
It turned out to be a single story about getting rich quick. In general, the West was portrayed to us Romanians though television, radio, magazines and so forth, as being the land of milk and honey. In reality, you have to work, and work hard, to get a decent living. It’s true that job security is a bit higher, as is the quality of life in general, and most people can afford lots of things above and beyond the bare necessities. Still, many people I’ve met in Canada (and many Romanians among them) start work at a very early age, on top of going to school, and adults have two jobs just to be able to pay the mortgage or to afford what they deem to be their confortable lifestyle.

Pohoto source:https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/no-extra-work-watermark-stamp-vector-12712104

What does a single story do to people? In my case, I saw that it can feed unrealistic hopes and expectations, and it can turn into a very bad case of misinformation. I was actually surprised to see potholes in the road in Canada; I had thought different of Paradise – up until then, when I quickly realized that it’s no Paradise.

Photo Source:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/305681893438763511/

Have you had any experience where your beliefs were upturned by subsequent events, because your image was not the whole truth?