Sometimes I wonder where exactly I want to be. I'm scared to back to my country. My reality. Scared to have to wake up from this long dream.
Sometimes I long for the reality. The true life.
Though sometimes I wonder, is my true life also true?
Last night was prom night. Another one of those western culture that we, the easterners adapt, for no particular reason. What? To feel cool, so you waste your time dancing with your friends?
I wonder what the world will be like in 50 years.
After living "The American Life" for almost a year, I am beginning to realize that I don't agree with a lot of things in the society. After attending 3 dances, I'm starting to think that it's pointless. It is wicked fun and yes, you can forget your responsibilities for a while. Then what? You go home and go to bed. Or in some of the American teen's cases, you get drunk and have sex.
Then what?
You wake up knowing you still have one year of high school. Helloo...?! What's the point?
I guess once in a while, you do have to have fun, but that's just not the way. But what can I say? They've been doing this for hundreds of years. It is part of their culture.
Not mine.
And it's different if you're in America, attending a dance party, knowing that it is their culture, their habit, their life from centuries ago, to attending a dance party in Indonesia, where they play American music, which they don't even understand the meaning, not their culture, not their habit, but something they do just to think of themselves as cool, popular, but actually a run away from their reality. I mean, please... come on here guys. I don't disagree with having fun with your friends, but yes I do disagree with excessive dancing (especially when people are grinding. It's like sex with clothes on).
If we're talking about cultures, we're talking about a long period of time. It can be define as:
- an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
- the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.
I thought prom was going to be really special. Really different from other dances such as winter ball and homecoming. But, no. There's no difference except for the nomination of Prom King and Queen, but that also is pointless.
The author F Scott Fitzgerald discusses a lot about the American Culture in the period known as The Jazz Age. If you have read The Great Gatsby or watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, then you have an idea of what I'm talking about. Jazz age is a period in the 1920s, also known as The Roaring Twenties. It happened right before The Great Depression. Back then, in the twenties, American economy was rising. Life was good. Technology and automobiles were improving fast. This is also the period when Hollywood was established. The women were known to wear flappers. Jazz was introduced and until now, it is still considered the genre for the intellects. That was when women went wild and crazy, drinking, having fun with men. Before this period, women were at home in the kitchen, feeding the babies.
Anyway, I'm not going to talk about American History. (Oh, damn exams are coming up!) I'm not going to talk about anything particular either here, actually, apart from how interestingly pointless the dances are.
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