America To Me

When I was in the eighth grade I entered a school writing contest. The contest prompt was… “America To Me.” It was 1976, and our great nation was celebrating the Bicentennial of our country. Ironically, I was in West Germany attending school while my dad served his military tour in Europe. You could only imagine what America meant to me then. It meant, McDonalds, American television, American radio… and everything else we didn’t have in Germany. I know that my paper most likely didn’t mention these few details back then because I was a rather serious young lady at that time… and most likely wrote about freedom, family and country. After all…it was a contest!

 

Now that I am well past junior high, I think my entry into a contest with the same prompt would be quite different. With so many life experiences, I know that there aren’t enough words to express what America means to me. But I would be remiss if I didn’t try to explain just how important my country is in my life on this the anniversary of our nation’s birth.

 

We all show our patriotism in our own way. Some of us are quite stoic while others are flamboyant in our pride of our nation. As was the case during the last few games of the soccer World Cup when America fought to win. All across our nation people painted their faces; wore red, white, and blue, chanted USA as a way to express their pride in their country. I couldn’t help but smile and be just as excited as I screamed USA USA to the television. Don’t ask me why since I was all by myself and no one could hear me. It’s kind of like wanting to sing our national anthem whenever I hear it played instrumentally. Somehow I have been trained from birth, like it’s engrained in my mind, that I am to show my pride for my country….this is what America is to me.

 

America to me is a lifestyle that allows for family and friends to come together to celebrate holidays and weekends. It’s the joy of attending sporting events and concerts that aren’t available anywhere else but here in the good ‘ol USA. America to me is watching our youth grow from toddlers to successful adults in a capitalist world. It is also watching those defeated find their will to fight, to regain what was lost… the epic American Dream.

 

America to me are the things I see like the Rockies, the Southern California beaches, the Blue Ridge Mountains and all the vast incredible natural wonders our nation has to offer. It’s the battlefields and monuments, small town town-squares, and the different accents that dot our homeland. America is the boy waving a flag while soldiers march in a parade. It’s neighborhood BBQs and children running through sprinklers. It ‘s friends helping friends, and strangers offering to help.

 

America to me is everything that makes me feel happy inside…it’s what makes me yell USA at the top of my lungs…because the truth of it all is…I’ve been all over this great land and there is NOTHING more beautiful than the country I call home. There is nothing more incredible than the freedom I was born with…Nothing more perfect than the United States of America.