What makes a Nation

      I believe that a nation is made up of a group of people who share a common feeling of national unity, language, history and/or culture. However I also think that in some cases, a nation can be made up of people with the same ethnicity as well, depending on where you are. Having had a conversation about whether or not a nation is good for humanity before with my father, I think I should highlight some key points from that discussion.  A nation simply implies diversity, and diversity is fun...I mean can you just imagine if everyone in the world was the same? I don't think anything good would come out of it.  However, chauvinism arises far too many times in this world.  It seems as though when some people learn that it's good to love what is theirs and where they come from, they think that it means that another nation is better or worse than theirs...they can't seem to get their mind around the fact that the other is simply different - and it's okay to be different and to have different backgrounds.
     The purpose of a nation is to feel as though you belong somewhere. I don't remember the guy's name, but as seen in the short film we watched in class on Thursday, he felt some sort of confusion because he did not know where he fit in.  Even though he lived with his adoptive family practically his whole life, he still felt like he was missing something - so he went to Korea (hoping to fill in the missing piece) and did not feel like he belonged there either. And I'm sure that this empty feeling is felt by many adopted children and the feeling of not know where you belong can often cause some sadness and frustration. Some people will say they belong to a continent (America, Africa, Europe), others will say they belong to a nation (whether it is a country or part of a country; Spain, Liberia, France), and others might simply say they belong to the world. Everyone DOES belong somewhere. And in my opinion, you can even feel like you belong to a country that has absolutely nothing to do with your background, even if you have only visited that place once or twice.