What is your Patriotic duty?

Many people have different ideas when someone says “patriotic duty”. Is it serving in the military, voting, or paying taxes? Leaving a place better than you found it? Or is is simply living your life filled with happiness and wellbeing? Many people have largely different answers to this question. If you asked ten people, you would without doubt get ten different answers. Many people’s vision of what a patriotic act is formed by what they see as patriotic. But again, this greatly varies person to person. We live in a culture here in the US where pride in the flag may not be rivaled across the world. Whether it be wearing an American Flag as a cape, or wearing it as a patch on your right shoulder, patriotism is something so engrained into American society, life would be dramatically different without the same level of national pride. In fact, we see this as we start here at Penn State as freshman. With the majority of people coming from outside Centre county, they say the thing they love most about Penn State is the school spirit, especially on fall Saturdays. Penn State’s school pride and America’s self pride are very similar. Penn Staters absolutely love their school. Whether you find it annoying (as I do), or the reason you think PSU is greater than all others, it is grounded in our sense Penn State is the best school in the country. Our athletic department has a rich history of success, and is widely enjoying success right now. Not only this, but Penn State’s academics have been rated as one of the top in the world for public universities. Now this is absolutely something to be prideful about, but these reason are usually not the primary reasons people have so much pride for the blue and white. They love the Greek life, the daylonging, the compactness of east and the size and beauty of the campus. They love mike the mail man (complete overrated) and the Willard Preacher. It’s the small little things which make us love Penn State, and it seems to be the same with the country we all call home.

The United States has very similar big reason as Penn State for people to be very prideful. We are the leading force in the world for planning and leadership. We enjoy a government decided by the people, and whose daily duty is greatly impacted by the people. Our freedoms are guaranteed, and we have the right to disagree with whoever we wish. But, the things people find so great about the US is the smaller things you have to experience within the States to feel. Things like Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security, a Profession of Arms unrivaled throughout the world. Thins like landing on the moon, the Super Bowl, march madness make this country great. It’s not the act (except landing on the freakin moon), but the idea of everything they stand for. Take march madness for example. Teams from all across the country and of all skill levels reach a point where they have the chance to be crowned a champion, much like an American dream. Through hard work, teamwork, and just a small drop of luck, anyone can obtain eternal glory by “cutting down the net” of reaching the point everyone holds as their peak. You don’t need to wear American Flag shorts to a daylong and shotgun a natty while your buddies scream “USA, USA, USA” for you to be patriotic. All you need to do is strive toward you peak – through all obstacles. Play like the 16 seed in the march madness, go all out every time you step on the court because it will honestly probably never happen again. Right now we all have the ability to take monumental steps towards our peak – starting right now.

Sorry this is more of a motivation and rant post – it really has nothing to do about what I was writing about, or maybe it does????????????????????

One thought on “What is your Patriotic duty?

  1. It’s interesting that you compare American pride and Penn State pride. I noticed as I traveled out of the country and discussed our different lifestyles I saw it a little different than you did. I found myself relentlessly raving about Penn State, but a little too eager to point out the flaws of American culture. Maybe that’s just because I was feeling guilty about my blessings so that’s what I choose to focus on, but it’s interesting all the same.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *