Both of my countries have a pretty huge problems. For once I stopped feeling like my countrymen. I’ve been largely humbled when I got here, and I stopped feeling like I know it all. I am not the smartest person in the world. And it’s a relief…

Aren’t you supposed to have some ounce of superiority before you declare yourself as superior? It simply makes no sense…

For a long while, my countrymen have generated this mental picture of Americans being fat slobs, which are underneath us. While obesity is running rampant in the States, it still doesn’t make sense to declare yourself smarter, based on your physical appearance or based on your “street smarts”.

Serbia – The land of the too much common sense

Bending the rules is the ideal which all Serbs aspired to. For the first time in my life, I’ve witnessed how it can be completely fine to be a part of something, and for instance, not be forced to feel proud that you’ve bent the rules.

For the whole of my life I’ve been thinking that it is actually good for you to live beyond the laws, doing it the “smart way”, instead of the right way. Rules felt like a nuisance, designed to make you feel like an idiot. At least that I’ve been thinking for an awful long while. At least until I’ve got here.

Now that I’ve came here, I’ve seen what the organized system can do for a person. And it’s literally mind blowing. Most of the things feel like they’ve been taken care off.

Majority of people from my country don’t realize what market is. They expect that they deserve things on the simple foundation that you have a right to it. Well, it’s not how the world works. It’s not how the free market operates. As my current landlord would say, it’s a two-way street.

Instead of being the smartest, I believe that my countrymen should first figure out how to be “smart enough”, in order to get by, past their limitations.

Overcome your obstacles with some decent self education

Learn the basics in life, that will allow you to get by. Learn the new language, learn something that will let you grow, and overcome your current limitations. Learn what you have to offer to the world, before you run out there, and feel like the smartest person in the world.

Get on with the program, the rest of the world won’t wait. Complacency is not that disastrous in United States, as it is in Serbia.

I am not glorifying the America here…

…nor am I “spitting” in my heritage. I am simply stating that there are diseases of the mind, that will allow the both parties to overcome the issues that we tackle with.

What I am glorifying here, is work. And there are plenty of working people out here, that aren’t over-thinking their value too much. They take any work they can find, and make their lives from there.

The fallacy of the value system

There is an underlaying shameful feeling regarding people and what kind of work they do in Serbia. Some of them feel like they are worthy of getting more, than they already have, while market neglects them completely. And on top of that, life passes by, opportunities go to waste, and they never get to showcase their potential. They are always waiting for some better time, a time that never comes.