Ah, dinner, the last meal of the day until a late night snack. My family is very simple about dinner rules: no elbows, no talking over others, no talking while your mouth is full, no phones, etc. With the food, well, we actually usually have some sort of pasta, despite having no Italian genealogy from neither my dad or my mom. I think a good point to make is that cultures of all sorts have spread through the United States, allowing there to be many different dinner options, such as Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Jewish, Persian, etc. We usually eat what we want, and special meals come around usually once a week or so, such as when my mom makes us tacos. Taco night woooo. So on that note, despite being a primarily American family, we eat whatever we want.
I haven't gone to a dinner at another house that wasn't American. Sure, there were different dinner rules, but they were only slight changes. One time a few years ago, I went to my friend Richard's house for breakfast and to hang out around the day. Richard is a 1st-gen-American I believe, as his parents came from China to here. Little did I know that day that we would be going over to a strictly Chinese restaurant. It was weird. The menus were primarily Chinese, with a bad English translation of everything, and Richard knew little Chinese, ironically, and so I had to talk to his mom. The food wasn't that bad, but just how I was the only American in the whole restaurant just gave me a sort of unease, something I didn't feel anywhere else. That is my only real experience of another culture first hand. Like no joke it felt like I was in China in that restaurant, with everyone speaking Chinese to each other and everyone being Chinese. But hey, it's good to be exposed to that; you quickly learn the differences between cultures.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Nathan, Meaning "Gift" in Hebrew
As many of you know, my name is Nathan Mirsky. Nathan is a very Jewish name, in fact, and the Hebrew verb "to give" transliterates to "natan." So take the noun version of that and boom, you have the noun "gift", which sounds like "minchah" in Hebrew (if you know how to read Hebrew, both words have nun, tav, and final nun, but with different vowels). At my old school, Tarbut V'Torah (TVT) in Irvine, we had to take a Hebrew class, and they were all Israeli. Whenever those teachers called my name, very rarely did they call me "Nathan"; instead they called me "Natan." Unlike Gogol in The Namesake, I'm not bothered by my name, despite it not being a super common name like Alex or Sarah. I like it due to its uniqueness and how it stands out (especially when put with my last name, Mirsky). I think Gogol thinks his name is a hindrace for its uniqueness, and ultimately the historical background of it. In the beginning of chapter 5 of The Namesake, he actually goes to the courthouse to change his name to "Nikhil," and by the end of the chapter he ultimately regrets changing it. I would never change my name; I'll always keep it at Nathan. And even though some people like to shorten it to Nate (which I hate), I don't beat myself up over it because I like it!
The reason I was named after the word "gift" is a full story with a spiritual significance, much like Gogol's. My brothers, Steven and Greg, were born in 1985 and 1987, and I was supposed to be just a couple years afterwards as "Michael." Unfortunately, my mom failed to get pregnant, and when she finally did, it happened to be a miscarriage. Skip a few years to September 1999, and my mom learns that she is pregnant again with me. Obviously it succeeded because I'm alive, and despite my mom being 41 when she gave birth to me, I came out perfectly (right on my due date [April 30] and at a great weight [7 lbs]). Now, the reason I was named Nathan was because my mom literally prayed to have a third child, just to make the family complete. With the whole decade that failed of getting pregnant, my conceiving was like a gift from God because I was conceived actually one month before my mom was going to take those pills that put women in immediate menopause. So I was my mother's gift, hence why I am named Nathan.
The reason I was named after the word "gift" is a full story with a spiritual significance, much like Gogol's. My brothers, Steven and Greg, were born in 1985 and 1987, and I was supposed to be just a couple years afterwards as "Michael." Unfortunately, my mom failed to get pregnant, and when she finally did, it happened to be a miscarriage. Skip a few years to September 1999, and my mom learns that she is pregnant again with me. Obviously it succeeded because I'm alive, and despite my mom being 41 when she gave birth to me, I came out perfectly (right on my due date [April 30] and at a great weight [7 lbs]). Now, the reason I was named Nathan was because my mom literally prayed to have a third child, just to make the family complete. With the whole decade that failed of getting pregnant, my conceiving was like a gift from God because I was conceived actually one month before my mom was going to take those pills that put women in immediate menopause. So I was my mother's gift, hence why I am named Nathan.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Heritage and an American Identity
When you hear my last name, Mirsky, you can tell that it is Russian due to the "-sky" ending. I have ancestors from Russia; even some that date back to the times of the Mongols (due to a DNA test, it showed that I have a very, very, very, very small percentage of Mongol in me [someone got raped]). I also have ancestors from Norway and the UK, mostly on my mom's side. They moved to the US in the 19th century to escape from religious persecution, converted to Mormonism, and moved to Utah in the early 20th century. More of my ancestors moved all over the US and the world, some ending up in Anaheim, California. When my mom married my dad, she decided to convert to Judaism. I'm not exactly sure why my dad's side decided to go into the US, but eventually they ended up in New York, some staying in Europe (about 10 died during the Holocaust). That is where my Jewish heritage comes, too. I think understanding where I come from and my genealogy is fascinating; my mom is almost addicted to it. However, I do not think it is important to identify as those nationalities because of one thing: if you are an American citizen, then you are an American. One thing I have noticed in our society is that people are starting to lose their American identity (the 2016 presidential election made me observant and I realized this). Let me explain my observation: people are starting to focus more on their heritage than their contemporary identity. To reiterate, people are starting to think of their race or heritage more than what it means to be an American. So, reader, I ask you to comment not about this post, but about this question: what does it mean to be an American? To me, it means that I live in the most unique, amazing country on Earth that delivers amazing opportunities to anybody that works for it; the American Dream, for example. In this election, and please respect my opinion, I particularly do not like Bernie Sanders not because he is a bad guy (I think he is a very nice man and would morally be good to the country), but because he wants to model this country off Denmark. Why? Well Denmark is pretty peaceful, its economy is doing well, and its socialist. However, look at the size difference between Denmark and the United States. Socialism cannot work in America, unfortunately, and 20 years ago, Bernie wouldn't be as far as he is because of his socialist goals.
I think diversity is definitely an important thing. It is definitely important to recognize in a community, but to strictly emphasize it is another story. Sage Hill definitely prides itself of its diversity, but I believe that its pride has turned into a rather negative affect. Why? When one consistently emphasizes diversity, it eventually segregates people. Ironic, right? Don't believe me? Think about it: when one says that we need to focus diversity, it segregates the Asians from the whites, Persians from the Asians, and so on and so forth. It puts people into racial categories. I think we need to stop focusing in terms to these racial categories, and like I said earlier, focus on what it means to be an American. Because, like it or not, we all live in America, and thus are Americans. So, in conclusion, we should classify as Americans, not white or black or Asian, but Americans. I know other states do not have this issue, and some races unfortunately do have a greater amount of privilege than others, but until we solve those problems, we still have to be Americans, and most importantly, we cannot be divided by opinions. Conservatives cannot be constantly attacking and disparaging liberals, and vice versa. We must learn to agree to disagree, and unite.
In conclusion, because I am not first-gen American, my influences come from my parents. My stress on focusing on our American identity rather than our racial identity comes from them. I mean, they grew up during the Cold War, and they were influenced by Ronald Reagan, the man that made the US win the Cold War. We must stop categorizing people and stop with constantly arguing; we must learn to agree to disagree, which also means eliminating political correctness; we must unite and be Americans. Individual heritages are definitely fascinating to know, but we cannot focus on our pasts; we must look at the present. We once might have been Irish, German, English, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, etc, but we are now Americans. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and again answer this question: What does it mean to be an American? Thank you.
I think diversity is definitely an important thing. It is definitely important to recognize in a community, but to strictly emphasize it is another story. Sage Hill definitely prides itself of its diversity, but I believe that its pride has turned into a rather negative affect. Why? When one consistently emphasizes diversity, it eventually segregates people. Ironic, right? Don't believe me? Think about it: when one says that we need to focus diversity, it segregates the Asians from the whites, Persians from the Asians, and so on and so forth. It puts people into racial categories. I think we need to stop focusing in terms to these racial categories, and like I said earlier, focus on what it means to be an American. Because, like it or not, we all live in America, and thus are Americans. So, in conclusion, we should classify as Americans, not white or black or Asian, but Americans. I know other states do not have this issue, and some races unfortunately do have a greater amount of privilege than others, but until we solve those problems, we still have to be Americans, and most importantly, we cannot be divided by opinions. Conservatives cannot be constantly attacking and disparaging liberals, and vice versa. We must learn to agree to disagree, and unite.
In conclusion, because I am not first-gen American, my influences come from my parents. My stress on focusing on our American identity rather than our racial identity comes from them. I mean, they grew up during the Cold War, and they were influenced by Ronald Reagan, the man that made the US win the Cold War. We must stop categorizing people and stop with constantly arguing; we must learn to agree to disagree, which also means eliminating political correctness; we must unite and be Americans. Individual heritages are definitely fascinating to know, but we cannot focus on our pasts; we must look at the present. We once might have been Irish, German, English, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, etc, but we are now Americans. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and again answer this question: What does it mean to be an American? Thank you.
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