u/mcqueenspeed

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I moved to the USA from the UK around 2 years ago (got a green card because someone in my family is a citizen) and it is a completely different reality to Europe.

I'm also in high school so my experience may be different to others you've read

The first time I entered the country was on holiday to Florida. I was around 8 at the time and I fell in love instantly. The big houses, big roads, big cars (big everything tbh) was just such a shock to me. Obviously, Florida is a beautiful paradise too and absolutely shits on the cold, miserable, depressing vibe of Europe. Pretty much everything in Florida was built recently and looked so much better than the older, uglier buildings you see in Europe (somehow Europeans are proud of this because it's "culture". I find it so hilarious when someone flexes their local pub is older than America as if that means anything. That only makes America's quick rise to the #1 superpower even more impressive). I remember I always thought how cool it was that Florida was tropical and hot yet was still super developed because all other tropical places I've been to were much poorer.

You hear this all the time but Americans really are super friendly and talkative. You feel like you're being judged less and have more room to be yourself. Personalities are more loud and over the top. I never felt like I could fully be myself in the UK. If you have social anxiety it will improve so much coming here. People actually act like actors in American movies, it's surreal the first time you experience it.

High school here is completely different to secondary school in the UK. It lasts 2 extra years which I honestly prefer. It's a lot more relaxed. You use a Chromebook frequently throughout the school day (whereas we used pen and paper in the uk). You're generally allowed in your phone although it depends on the school. People are also super friendly and chill and I was welcomed. One interesting thing I noticed is that the "nerds" and seeming unpopular people interact with the popular kids a lot more than they do in the UK. I see many of them being friends which NEVER happened in the UK. Everyone has a generally happy vibe and mood.

The quality of education exceeded my expectations. Although the content of material seems somewhat easier, the teaching and resources provided to you are much better than the UK. Then again I go to a pretty good school so this may not be universal. American high school movies are honestly pretty accurate. High school sports here completely blow the UK out of the water. In the UK we only had a football team (soccer). Here we have American football, football, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, baseball, softball, track, cross country, swimming, wrestling, ice hockey, field hockey, tennis, and even more I can't think of right now. There's also multiple teams for the same sport (varsity for the first time, junior varsity for the second team, and sometimes a freshman team made up of only freshman). Most tests / quizzes are multiple choice too which makes them much easier. A lot more students drive cars to school as well even though there are school busses.

Houses are much bigger, cheaper, and prettier. In the UK, I lived in a 1000sqft ugly brick townhouse with a extremely small garden. Now I live in a 3500sqft+ HOUSE with a half acre garden. For reference I'm middle to slightly upper middle class. The funniest thing is my house in America is slightly cheaper than the townhouse in the UK even though it is triple the size and in a better area with a good school district. Europeans are getting absolutely raped with their house prices. America has one of the cheapest housing relative to income ratios in the world (top 5).

American natural beauty is also unparalleled. No country has the biodiversity America does. One of the coolest things is that you can customise what type of environment you want to live in WHILE STILL LIVING IN AMERICA. Each state has different weather, nature, types of people, politics, etc.

People on social media love to pretend that Europe has a "higher quality of life" but this could not be FURTHER from the truth (at least in the UK specifically). America has better weather (depends on state but on average it is significantly sunnier), higher salaries, lower taxes, bigger better looking houses, friendlier people, the best natural beauty, but Euros still swear they have a better quality of life.

The whole gun violence thing is way overblown. You are 2-4x as likely to die from the heat in Europe than you are from a gun homicide here. Yes, that's a real statistic you can search it up. Violent crime is also hyper concentrated in the hood of bad cities (Detroit, Memphis, St Louis, etc). While gun violence still happens, the odds of you experiencing it are still extremely low especially if you live in the suburbs (violent crime index is comparable to Europe in the burbs).

The U.S does NOT have bad healthcare. The NHS (the UK's national health provider) has horrible wait times and honestly disappointing quality of service. Americans pay for private healthcare and get seen quicker. The U.S leads the world in cancer survival rates. Americans get access to the newest technology the quickest. While healthcare insurance can be pretty expensive, salaries are also much higher in the U.S and taxes are lower. Even after healthcare costs, Americans have the highest median expendable income in the world.

Public transportation is really the only thing Europe has on America but I would never use it anyway tbh since I like being in a car more.

I could write an in depth thread much longer explaining how America shits on Europe if you guys want me to. Let me know if you guys have any questions.

If you don't live in America, are you really living? It's a completely different world.