One remarkable facet of America is that is it filled to the brim with dichotomies. We are both a nation comprised overwhelmingly of Christians, yet embrace rugged individualistic economics. We favor small government, but are quick to defend the government’s right to spy on its citizens, restrict freedoms in the name of safety and give the police quite a bit of wiggle room in the application of deadly force. The overarching American dichotomy is that it is both a wonderful place in which to live, and a terrible one.

America, when viewed in the right light, is an amazing place. It allows people to freely express themselves, even when their speech is unpopular or in poor taste. We are also a diverse country, made up of various ethnicities, faiths and cultures. While there are some tensions between certain groups, the country as a whole is fairly tolerant of people who are different.

However, I find it increasingly difficult to list ways in which America is great, and that is partially why I am writing this, and ultimately leaving the country. There are great things about America, but I can’t write about them without including many, many caveats and asterisks. For example, higher education in the U.S. is fairly good and easily accessible. However, students graduating today must be prepared to be in debt indefinitely and accept a job that isn’t in their field (or that even requires a degree at all). Our healthcare system is of high quality, but is inefficient and costly. Despite the fact that we spend about twice as much per person on healthcare in the U.S. compared to other advanced countries, we still have severe problems in terms of access to care, inequality of outcome, and heavy financial burdens and bankruptcy tied to something as arbitrary as when a person contracts an illness.

I come from a fairly typical middle class background, and my story likely does not stand out from those of my peers. I was raised by baby boomers during the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years and taught that college is the only option if I want to do well in life. I gravitated toward political science in my late teens, though I had developed a strong sense of justice at a fairly young age. While in college, I found myself debating policy and attempting to defend the disenfranchised and the weak.

Upon graduating from college, I found myself to be one of the people who I had fought for as an undergrad; underemployed and burdened by substantial debt. My first real dose of the “real world” came about 3 months after graduating and being dropped from my health insurance plan. I contracted a severe illness that kept me bedridden for weeks and took 3 doctors visits to diagnose. Between the uninsured doctor’s visits, medication, and missed days at my minimum wage service industry job, the overall cost of the illness totaled over $1,000. While the illness turned out to be relatively minor, it scared the hell out of me. “What if I hadn’t had the safety net provided by my parents?” I thought. That relatively minor illness could have been devastating for a single parent trying to make ends meet, and it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the consequences if the illness had been more serious in nature.

I could go on about my substantial student loan burden or inability to find work that pays enough to survive or is even in my field. In the interest of brevity, I will just sum up my feelings on America’s current political and socio-economic culture. In short, we have lost our way. We are quick to declare that “we’re number one!” while ignoring all of the evidence to the contrary. American citizens are willing, or perhaps eager, to vote against their own best interests and the interests of those in their community. Efforts at reigning in skyrocketing economic inequality are labeled “socialist,” while we trip over ourselves to funnel more and more wealth into bank accounts that are already overflowing. It seems the word “bootstraps” now stands alone in the space once occupied by words like “fairness,” “economic justice” and “security” in our political vocabulary, and I do not think we are better for it.

America is my home, and I will miss it, or at least certain parts of it. However, I am excited to experience something new, if for no other reason than to serve as a basis for comparison. I know that no country is perfect, and that a lot of the things that bug me about America will bug me about my new country of residence, and there sure to be new annoyances I never even expected. However, our soon-to-be new home of South Korea looks incredibly promising. They understand that getting sick shouldn’t lead a person into financial ruin. They seem to value education far more than we do, which will be a welcome change from the fierce anti-intellectualism that exists here in the states.

I look forward to meeting you, South Korea.

-Kevin