Until Tomorrow

July 4th, a day when America celebrates the beginning to its independence. It's surprising how actively Americans participate in such a celebration even after three-hundred years. Many traditions have died out, but celebrating Independence Day has not. Plus, even other cultures, beside Americans, celebrate it. Through the parade, I felt pride to be from a different culture. Without the melting pot of cultures, American would not feel the same. This is especially augmented because I'm a first-generation  Chinese-American and also going to be the first-generation to attend college in America. Without my parents and their guidance, I would have never made it this far. It was refreshing to experience a parade, it's been a long time since I've seen one. The last parade I saw was in freshmen year. All of the other parades I've been to weren't from a spectator perspective, but rather from a marching band perspective.

The temperature was as blazing hot as the Sahara Desert - for a Californian, anyways - and the amount of people at the parade was not helping me out. It was surprising to see the cultural diversity that the parade had; not only was there American marching bands but also Chinese, Tibet, Filipino, and Latin culture. That really represents the uniqueness of America. On a side note, I was excited to see marching bands at the parade. It's been half a year since marching band season and I have been missing it dearly. I vicariously experienced myself in a band from today, I marched on-time with them. I had so much pride knowing that I am a part of marching band, even from a spectator perspective, it appears dignified. I feel unified with everyone from the band when I march proudly down the isle with nothing but the band and our efforts to strongly finish the dreaded march with our uniforms. 

 After hanging out and playing sports with my friends, I went to the fireworks show for Independence Day. The fireworks were not amazing at all. It was a disappointment that we had to wait 2 hours for the fireworks to start. Although it was nice to make new friends and socialize. That's the whole part of the experience. Everyday, I seem to meet more and more diverse people. It's shocking to find out the cultures there are out of the West Coast. I met a Chinese girl living in Guam! That's a really unique setting and I'm disappointed that I didn't learn more about her. I still have much time to get to learn about and make new friends! It's relaxing to come back from a long day and lay on the nice and soft bed.