I was born in Bruges, a small town close to the coast and the Northsea. It always felt like home, but I didn't have a special relation with it. This is my home town, end of story, or so I thought.Last year I started university. During the week I live in Ghent, where my university is and during the weekends i'm in Bruges. I liked Ghent from the very first moment, but after a few months that feeling started to change. Yes, I still like it, but i started to miss things. I started to miss the familiar places, the little bridges crossing the water, the cafés where I went with friends, the big churches and building, the bike destroying bump filled roads, I just missed home.
In a way I had to leave my home town to realise how much it means to me. I do have a relation with this city, it's my home! And although I like to travel, go to other countries, Bruges will always be in my heart, for it is the place where I grew up, where all my memories are. Everytime I'm riding with my bike through te city I take the time to look at things, although I have seen everything a million times.
Belgium, now that is another story. I live in Bruges, wich is located in Belgium, so that makes me Belgian, and yet I never really felt Belgian. I always felt like a citizen of mankind and I never really understood why some people are so proud of their country. I like living in Belgium, we have some great social security, people are looked after, men and women have equal rights, etc. And yet, I'm not proud of my country. I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean that in way that I'm more proud of what the people, the citizens, the politcians, etc have accomplished. As I said before, I feel like a citizen of mankind, I'm more proud of what we the people have accomplished.
Post dedicated to Arly, who wanted to know more about Belgium. And although it's more about me and my relation with Belgium, I felt like writing this down.
Take care and see you soon.
Edit : reading through this, to check on mistakes, I noticed that I didn't really make the difference between, proud of your country and proud of the people. I think that being proud of your country means that your are proud to live there, you are proud of the system, you are proud what the country has accomplished, etc. Being proud of the people means, well in my opinion, being proud that the people of your country were able to make a great system, were able to make sure everybody is looked after, etc.
That being said, Take care and see you soon.
5 comments:
I feel the same way about my hometown. Thought nothing of it until I moved away. Now it's my favorite place.
And where we differ: I am proud of the people here, but I am also proud of the country. I'm sure I"m a complete European cliche but I dont care. My heritage may be Belgian but I am 100% American. I dont know. That probably doesn't make any sense.
Thanks for dedicating that post to me! :)
Coffeguy, I really like your thoughts here about your nation, and I think it's wonderful how the system is set up to take care of everyone.
I happen to live in the United States, born here and therefore a citizen, but I too see myself as really belonging to all humankind, first. All. And because of my faith belonging to the kingdom of God come in Jesus.
Anyhow, nice thoughts here. I too miss my home area as I now live around four hours from there.
Hey Ted,
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read my blog. Thanks for your comments. :-)
I always see Bruges as a touristic walhalla without a real authentic community, or am I wrong?
Hi Veerle, thanks for stopping by.
In a way you are correct. It is very touristic, and for alot of people it's nothing more than than that. But the real "Bruggelingen" are proud of there dialect and thats what connects alot of us. It's our own little "thing". It's not much, but it does keep us together.
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