Hello all! This is Sam, 3 months into my spring semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

A big part of my experience so far has been noting cultural differences and comparing life in Argentina to life in the US. I make observations in daily life, learn about the culture from my professors, and have conversations with locals, who tend to be naturally curious about foreigners and are pretty much always willing to share their opinions. 

In this post, the cultural difference I want to focus on is the definition or perception of success. I would say that in recent years, there’s been a shift in the US with higher education and rent becoming more expensive, making young people less able to afford to move out of their parent’s home. However, the middle/upper-class ideal still stands for many: the high school graduate who goes off to college to live on their own and never moves back in with their parents. This isn’t an easy thing to do, and I don’t mean to say that it’s a universal experience, either, as some students receive help from their parents and some remain at home or work to be able to afford school. Still, there’s an expectation of success and quite a bit of pressure to do all that you can to reach it. 

In Argentina, I’ve noticed some differences to this cultural standard or expectation. I recently started watching Homo Argentum, recommended to me by a local friend, and I think it illustrates this difference in a comical and dramatized but ultimately effective way. The film is split into 16 independent micro-stories, often with the same actors but always different plotlines and characters. Every storyline tells a quintessentially Argentine story, making the show great for anyone who wants to learn more about Argentine culture. (Although the stories may be dramatized and stereotypical, they have the Argentine stamp of approval). One of the first segments tells the story of two parents desperately trying to kick their nearly 40 year old son out of the house. Although it’s obviously dramatized for comedic effect, there’s some truth to the family dynamic and to how normal it is for Argentines to live with their parents into older ages (maybe not 40 though).

I don’t have any answers, but I can conjecture that in Argentina there’s less societally-imposed pressure to get out and live on your own when it’s not convenient or necessary to you. It’s very normal, for example, to continue living with your parents while attending university (again, if possible). I have been staying with an Argentine family while studying abroad here, and my host brother (24 years old) is living with his mom while he finishes his studies.

All this to say, success looks different depending on where in the world you are. We feel a lot of pressure to achieve certain life goals by certain ages, but it’s useful to evaluate whether these goals are realistic and whether they’re serving us in any way.