When you’ve lived in one country your whole life and have become a citizen of that country, you feel like you can say anything about that place. By living in one place you constantly start to only see the bad. You are so focused on the things that can go wrong. But once you leave or move away from that country you start to get a little homesick and realize you took it all for granted.
I am not trying to influence travelers to start seeing the bad within my country but rather to be aware that even though a place may be different and have its issues, it is still beautiful. These travelers should not begin to say terrible things about the countries they travel to. They don’t live there and they just seeing the country through a visitors perspective.
For me I have lived in the same house my whole life, I love my home. When I moved to America it was the first time I was living in a city in a small apartment, compared to a house on a farm. This was a major adjustment I had to make. I used to say that I hated my small farm town, that it was boring but now I miss it. The city life is rather different to the life I am from. I have realized that my small town isn’t all that bad now and I can’t wait to go back.
Being born and raised in Africa I fell in love with wildlife and conservation, I got used to the fact that I could go to a game reserve and see all the wild animals. Now all I crave is going back to see those animals. This was one thing I never thought I would miss so much. I thought everyone across the world knew about the poaching of rhinos, but really not everyone knows. All I can say is that I am proud of the people in not only South Africa, but Africa as a whole, for trying their best to protect those animals.
I now see how although things may be tough in my country and people are struggling financially or emotionally they still manage to have a smile on their face, try to be happy and see the good. I miss my people. I have come to realize that my country is beautiful and it is just like every other country they have the good and the bad. We see that as if you ask someone about their country that may only see bad things but you only see the good. So never forget how beautiful life in your home country is.