From Over There to Over Here -in Time and Space

Color TV was introduced in America in 1951... in my home, back in South America it was introduced (phisically "introduced" in our family room) in 1981, thirty years later! I can still remember that day, I was in third grade and it was perhaps the only time that my family had breakfast together on a week day.

But 30 years! That's a very long fucking time. I've been living in the heart of the US for 3 years now, and sometimes when I look back at my life it seems to me like if I grew up in a whole different world in time and space. Putting aside the electronic gadgets that make life easier (or more complicated), the relationships that I see among families, friends, couples and parent-children here in America are sometimes ah, er, kind of different as compared to what I grew up in. Comparison in America means assigning right and wrong, and good and bad. For me comparisons are just parallel universes in the same reality. Both are good if you learn from them and if it helps you grow to respect and understand other people.

I thought for example that America was an awful place to grow up in if you were a teenager; I based my theory on my experiences back in KY when I was 17 years old and on the difficulties and "big deals" that I found when it came to drinking, going to bars and discos, and the damn speed limit, as opposed to the rules and regulations -and freedoms- in my home country.

Over time however, I've grown to realize that there's just so much than just alcohol, parties, hangovers and speed limit in this life... oh my God, I can't believe I just said that!