A Shocked Culture

            
             When speaking of the term "culture shock" immediately I identify with being in a foreign country for the first time. This is true but it is not the only exception of culture shock, many encounters can lead to culture shock. For example: starting a new job, moving to a new city, even moving to a new house. According to Kalervo Oberg, who is credited for finding the term "culture shock", there are four stages of this phenomenon. To assist me with describe the four stages I will use the events surrounding September 11, 2001. I will start with first explaining the honeymoon phase.
             During the honeymoon phase, just like that brief period after two people get married, it is a time of sweet bliss and everything is wonderful. The United States of America was deep into the honeymoon stage before the incident. Our Nation was prosperous, unemployment was low and the economy was strong. Most of us were living the "American Dream". Americans were untouchable until the unthinkable happened. We were thrown into the crisis stage.
             The crisis stage, as you can imagine, is the most apparent. It is where the "shock" portion of the term comes to play. I remember to well what I felt and where I was when I heard the news. Raw emotions emerge in this stage, uncertainty, anxiety, etc. I remember feeling disbelief; this couldn't happen here. Then anxiety set in I was hundreds of miles away from my children and I was going to have to fly on an airplane to get back home. And lastly, the emotional breakdown, I cried myself to sleep for three nights and I could not tell you specifically why. But slowly after realization setting in and coping mechanisms taking over I fell into the recovery stage.
             The recovery stage is that point when the initial shock starts to wear off. It is the time that you start to realize that you either have to sink or swim. I started to accept the facts. I am a member of the United States Air Force.