The World Cup is What the US Needs

Let it be known, I know very little about soccer. My primary source of knowledge comes from my younger brother who plays travel soccer. That’s the start and end. But much like how the world is enraptured by sports when the Olympics happen, I’ve found myself captivated by the World Cup.

There’s not really a team I’m rooting for, and half the time I get confused on why a foul was called. However, I still find myself sitting on my couch watching game after game – with my younger brother providing commentary of course. He makes it all a little easier to understand.

Due to the global phenomenon, my feed has also been flooded with World Cup content. I’ve seen everything from highlight compilations, to fan edits, to vlogs of tourists coming primarily to the US to attend matches.

It’s that last one that I’m so interested in.

I’m one of the first people to criticize the US; after all, there are plenty of things to criticize. Between our ever quickening descent from democracy, increased social conflicts, and the looming doom of late-state capitalism, the US isn’t looking too hot. We’ve become the world’s laughing stock. It isn’t shocking when other countries poke fun at us. How can we possibly say we’re a beacon of democracy, that we’re thriving, when we can’t even uphold the basic pillars of democracy.

For this reason, and several others, I was hesitant to believe the US was a good place to host the World Cup. That isn’t to say other countries don’t experience many of the same problems; in fact, some of them are in worse states than us, but that didn’t quell my fear.

It wasn’t until I saw video after video of tourists coming to the US with wide eyes that I realized maybe this was a good idea after all.

I’ve only ever lived in the US and because of that I’ve grown used to the culture. This is the only life I’ve ever known. I thought little about the mundane things like smiling at a stranger or free refills of coffee.

The tourists made me appreciate them.

There’s one Tweet from a Japanese tourist stopping at a Mexican restaurant that made me sit back in my seat, put down my phone, and reflect. In a Mexican restaurant in the US it’s common to freely be given chips and salsa when you’re seated. I couldn’t even name a time I’ve been to a Mexican restaurant and that didn’t happen.

But this man, one who’d presumably never been to a restaurant like this, was immensely shocked. For him, this was a clash of cultures – in Japan this was considered a gift, something meant to be carefully crafted and then executed in a particular manner. In the US, it was common courtesy.

To some people this was just a passing joke, something they ReTweeted or liked and went on with their day. I was likely one of the few that couldn’t shake the post from my head.

I started looking out for the little things we experience in the US, not the actions of our government or politicians, not what the people on Wall Street were doing. What small actions were everyday people committing that made the US the beautiful place we say it is?

I thought about my past experiences, the ones that stuck with me even though they were nothing but fleeting moments.

The time I was reading on a bench and a woman passed me to tell me the book – The Goldfinch – was one of her favorites.The time I was sketching in a museum when an older man came up to me to tell me he’d wait to see my name in the movies (we spoke about how I had wanted to go into animation). The time I was walking around campus and listened as someone played my favorite Bob Dylan song – "The Times They Are A-Changin’". The time I had a quick conversation with an exchange student asking me, someone from Chicagoland, what she should do on her summer trip to the city.

None of these things are grand gestures. Many of these interactions were five minutes at most, but even years later I can still recall them in vivid memory.

These conversations, quips even, between strangers showed me what the US is really supposed to be. And it was the World Cup tourists that made me think back on them.

In other cultures, such “closeness” between strangers is uncommon. Though people may say the US is highly individualistic – and in a way it is – there is always an air that you aren’t alone. Maybe it’s someone at a bus stop who compliments your outfit. Maybe it's a teacher you had years ago checking in. Or maybe it’s just someone you brush past on the street. We give out advice, joyful notes, more than you’d think.

The World Cup has made me appreciate those moments now more than ever. I hope that when the tourists return home, wherever that may be, that they pass on the good word. The US is more than its government, and many of us are doing as much as we can to prove that. We aren’t perfect – though nowhere is – but we’re trying our best.

What we have is hope, a hope we freely share. So, smile at the passerby, uplift a stranger. The US can be a scary place right now, and it’s our duty as Americans to make it a little less so.