Before coming to the UK, I didn’t realize how old everything would be compared to America. The other day I went to a historic graveyard somewhere in the city. My friend said, “Let’s find headstones of people older than America!” The task proved far easier than anticipated. Considering it was a historic graveyard, most of the people buried there lived sometime before 1776. I’ve never felt so young.
Another trip I took was to the ruins of St. Andrew’s Castle. Parts were made of limestone that was being eaten away by the damp sea air. It looked like ancient rock formations, but miniature and in the middle of an archway or stair turret.
The next week my program sent us on homestays in Shap, part of the lake district of England. Our “host father” for the weekend took us on a tour of the local national park. We saw countless beautiful stone circles and castle ruins.
Of course, before we arrived to our continent, there was a rich Native American history. But it is not our history. It’s a history we walked in on and took over. When walking through a graveyard of people who lived and died before the idea of America existed, you realize how young America really is.
Another thing that makes me think about America’s youth is a class I’m taking called American Innocence. The class is centered around American coming-of age-novels, such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Cather in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Member of the Wedding. In his intro, my professor explained that “coming-of-age” is an extremely American concept. His overarching thesis for the class is that in the novels we read, the coming-of-age of the characters coincides with the coming of age of America. The coming-of-age of America? His analysis made it sound like America was some rebellious teenager who ran away from home to seek independence and grow up according to our own plan. That’s crazy…
But on second thought, isn’t that what we did? The idea of American coming-of-age is not such a crazy concept; I just had never thought of it that way. So America, wayward child of Europe, appreciate your youth, for it won’t last forever.
xxx Rebecca