This morning I was having a lovely conversation with my dear Ukrainian friend, and we were discussing how we feel about being literally "100%" of our nationality. For me, it's such a blessing. Since there are roughly only 3.4 million Lithuanians in the world, I feel so honored to be part of this Eastern euro craziness.
As I got older, I started thinking about the question that I'm sure most of us "100%'s" eventually face the reality of. Would we marry someone who isn't "100%" of our nationality? Since we are very rare in today's society, would it be worth marrying "outside" our cultural boundaries?
How I would go about answering this struggle...that's not an easy question. I think it depends where you culturally stand. For me personally, living life thus far, American men honestly don't seem to understand culturally where I'm coming from. I can say I'm Lithuanian, make them some Lithuanian food, show them various traditions, music, movies and the overall essence of the culture, but at the end of the day, they don't seem to fully grasp the concept of how much my culture is engraved in my blood and what it means to me. This goes both ways, take for example, American men who like football. I can't stand football or sports in general (besides Euro futbol) so I won't fully culturally understand them, just like they don't fully culturally understand me, if that makes sense. Also, I would prefer to marry someone who shares the same cultural background when it comes to historical events of the past. Most American men don't understand what its like to grow up with parents who went through communism.
If you want my honest view of young American men in general...they are very indirect. I'm not God, I really have no idea what you're thinking! I can make all these assumptions about you wither they be beautiful or ugly, but unless you communicate how you actually feel, I have NO FREAKIN IDEA. You are also quite shy. Don't be afraid of us Eastern Euro women, we are really not that scary. We might walk around with a haunting serious poetic death stare on our face...but behind our "death in our eyes" look lies a sweet smile of a young girl in a pink dress, skipping around in the daisies...well at least cough cough some of us....=P Obviously there are also those certain individual American men who are just a little too direct, you know...ask for your number in 10 seconds....but whatever...
As for European men, culturally I feel like we are alot closer. When we greet each other we're practically making out! Just kidding, more like a hug or a kiss on the cheek...(or if you're French...3 kisses on the cheek =P) I personally, like this cultural style. I laugh at these cultural differences, NONE of my American guy friends would be caught dead greeting me with a kiss on the cheek....its just not EVER going to happen. (If it does, it's probably cause you just read this blog post and were simply just curious lol) Also, when a young European gentleman ( I say gentleman meaning a Euro man of high standards and good quality) says that he LOVES you, dang.....he's being seriously serious. They will make themselves VERY clear.
At the end of the day, we can endlessly laugh at the cute foolishness of young American and European men, but on a more serious note, I honestly wonder how the world will look nationality wise 100 years from now. The following thought I'm about to describe is a perspective of life that came across my mind while I was ridding a bus through the mountains of Montenegro (strange place for such thoughts, lol right?) There seems to be a trend in which people are marrying outside their cultural boundaries. If this trend continues, and I assume it obviously will, we could one day live in a world where there literally are no "100%'s" left. I feel like God could use this to show the world that He truly does exist, and that we are all connected somehow. We as creation started out as "100%'s" but then in the end we will be so mixed with all of each others blood, every country in one person....
As I got older, I started thinking about the question that I'm sure most of us "100%'s" eventually face the reality of. Would we marry someone who isn't "100%" of our nationality? Since we are very rare in today's society, would it be worth marrying "outside" our cultural boundaries?
How I would go about answering this struggle...that's not an easy question. I think it depends where you culturally stand. For me personally, living life thus far, American men honestly don't seem to understand culturally where I'm coming from. I can say I'm Lithuanian, make them some Lithuanian food, show them various traditions, music, movies and the overall essence of the culture, but at the end of the day, they don't seem to fully grasp the concept of how much my culture is engraved in my blood and what it means to me. This goes both ways, take for example, American men who like football. I can't stand football or sports in general (besides Euro futbol) so I won't fully culturally understand them, just like they don't fully culturally understand me, if that makes sense. Also, I would prefer to marry someone who shares the same cultural background when it comes to historical events of the past. Most American men don't understand what its like to grow up with parents who went through communism.
If you want my honest view of young American men in general...they are very indirect. I'm not God, I really have no idea what you're thinking! I can make all these assumptions about you wither they be beautiful or ugly, but unless you communicate how you actually feel, I have NO FREAKIN IDEA. You are also quite shy. Don't be afraid of us Eastern Euro women, we are really not that scary. We might walk around with a haunting serious poetic death stare on our face...but behind our "death in our eyes" look lies a sweet smile of a young girl in a pink dress, skipping around in the daisies...well at least cough cough some of us....=P Obviously there are also those certain individual American men who are just a little too direct, you know...ask for your number in 10 seconds....but whatever...
As for European men, culturally I feel like we are alot closer. When we greet each other we're practically making out! Just kidding, more like a hug or a kiss on the cheek...(or if you're French...3 kisses on the cheek =P) I personally, like this cultural style. I laugh at these cultural differences, NONE of my American guy friends would be caught dead greeting me with a kiss on the cheek....its just not EVER going to happen. (If it does, it's probably cause you just read this blog post and were simply just curious lol) Also, when a young European gentleman ( I say gentleman meaning a Euro man of high standards and good quality) says that he LOVES you, dang.....he's being seriously serious. They will make themselves VERY clear.
At the end of the day, we can endlessly laugh at the cute foolishness of young American and European men, but on a more serious note, I honestly wonder how the world will look nationality wise 100 years from now. The following thought I'm about to describe is a perspective of life that came across my mind while I was ridding a bus through the mountains of Montenegro (strange place for such thoughts, lol right?) There seems to be a trend in which people are marrying outside their cultural boundaries. If this trend continues, and I assume it obviously will, we could one day live in a world where there literally are no "100%'s" left. I feel like God could use this to show the world that He truly does exist, and that we are all connected somehow. We as creation started out as "100%'s" but then in the end we will be so mixed with all of each others blood, every country in one person....
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