America Is Not What It Used To Be

I was talking to a patient yesterday and he talked about how he feels like there is no point in being in America anymore and he wants to leave. I heard what he was saying and honestly, I agree. America is bad right now and it is not just about the economy, government, politics, and all that. The United States socially, environmentally and all the other things are not what it used to be, and I want to get out of here too. The patient I was talking to came to the United States from Japan in 2020 in hopes of making a living for himself and building something here. He is currently an engineer and makes around 100k but still feels empty. I'm sure we have all heard that before and it won't be the last of it.

He was talking about wanting to go back to Japan and as someone who went to Japan around 5 months ago, I don't blame him. The freedom that we all seek to have here in the United States was something I found in Japan. No country is perfect and of course Japan has their own flaws but there is more peace, and people are happier there without a lot. I wrote more about this on my post about my trip to Japan, but I completely agree with where he was coming from. A lot of people from different countries like mine Ghana or around the world see what the United States is on TV and imagine that is how life truly is, but they have a wakeup call when they get here. My patient talked about how different he thought it would be living here coming from Japan but in the 5 years he has been here has realized it is the opposite.

I'm not just talking about the economy but also the way of life and how people treat each other. It feels like we are at war with each other every day and seems like different races are competing on the daily. Everyone is all to themselves and not able to make connections with each other and barely even talk to each other because we are all on our phones. Social media has taken over and what kids are introduced to at a young age is not helping. There was a 12-year-old patient we helped recently who was taken to a psych hospital by his school PD because they found a note of him having suicidal and homicidal thoughts and the worse part of it, he showed up to school with a gun. Where else have you heard that before?

I'm sure the United States is not the only place this goes on at, but it seems like an everyday occurrence these days. You don't even feel comfortable taking kids to school because these days a random person goes around shooting the students and the staff at the school for no reason. I went to Hamburg, Germany last year to visit family and there were kids as young as 6-8 years old walking around by themselves to school and some were even on the train with me. There was no danger of them being kidnapped or hurt because it is the last thing thought about there. I was shocked seeing that in which my aunt told me that I'm not in the United States and safety in most of the European countries is way better than what I am used to. She wasn't wrong and honestly no one should be looking over their shoulder day in and out just to survive.