America is a capitalist country. Americans are born and bred to start looking for work from the moment they come into the world. People look at a newborn baby and wonder what career it will have, and then that said baby is asked for the first time what field they would like to enter around first grade. Teachers get answers like the president, policeman, singer, etc. America has a work-centric culture. Neither good nor bad, America is known to be one of the most innovative countries in the world. They are constantly attempting to create and fulfill the demand for the next big thing. And its citizens are constantly preparing to supply America with those ideas and take part in those innovations. That being said, American citizen’s lives are shaped around the idea of fulfilling those professional needs in order to maintain a lifestyle and fulfill that professional status. It is what every child spends their adolescence working towards. Good grades to get into a good college to get a good job.
In my opinion, I feel as though there is more to life than working a decent job that barely pays you enough to survive for forty hours a week for approximately sixty years of life so that you can hopefully relax in a decent retirement home if your living conditions and the politics of the US don’t kill you first. I was once that said child who was bred to being a lawyer because they make good money. I studied my hardest to get into great schools, to then drown in student debt, and to then learn that our education system is severely flawed and overpriced. But through my four years in college and a pandemic, I opened my eyes to the experiences that truly matter. These experiences being ones outside the tunnel vision of capitalism, such as traveling, intimate moments with family, and random people on the street. These moments sweep your perspective from the hard-working, mentally straining tasks we do to survive in this tragic economy to something bigger than money and a job.
From my experiences of traveling abroad and the small amount of time that I have spent in Italy, I have seen such a different perspective on life and its supposed purpose. In America, your career and function to the capitalist society is your worth but in Italy, living is a luxury. One meant to be enjoyed and savored like a sip of wine. Life is more relaxed, and most people don’t go to college or are stressed to move out right after 18. Of course, they aren’t struggling under the oppression of paying for health care and their government cares enough about them to take care of them during a pandemic. The pressure to have a life solely centered around a career does not exist in this country. A café job is livable and still enjoyable. Italy indulges in the simpler things of life such as culture, food, the intimacy of company; something I believe is the true purpose of humans, to live.
By understanding this, seeing where I come from and where I want to go, I am able to absorb more of the Italian culture and let it soak into my skin and, hopefully, my heart. I hope that when I go back to America, I can remind myself that I don’t have to be a slave to a job even though that is the normality that surrounds me and suffocates my peers.