The Moment I Knew I was an American

To be an American?  Many things can classify a person as being American; views, background, virtues, goals. For me an American is anyone who expresses the views of freedom and the has the will to accomplish his or her goals.  Race, ethnic background, culture have nothing to do with being an American. If you are a hardworking person looking to make a good life for yourself and share the necessity of freedom, you meet all the qualifications.  Born in America makes you "American" but only by a slip of paper that says you were born in America.  If you believe another countries virtues and opportunity are greater you could consider yourself that nationality.  To say the number of people that consider themselves Americans is very few considering how many people say they live in America.

When I was a kid, I was always asking what I was. My mom would say your half Chinese and half Irish.  I would also ask the story's of how our families got to America.  I would ask my mom's mom especially because she immigrated from China and I found her story to be the most interesting out of all the story's.  As I grew older I kept to the same story until I started being asked what race I was on surveys and tests.  I had always considered myself Chinese-Irish (Chi-rish), but when I was then asked to choose between "white" and "Asian," I found myself pulled between sides of the family.  I was very confused as why an "other" box was so hard to have, there has to be a pretty good amount of multi-racial kids besides just me.  So this was the moment I truly realized I was an American.  I represented the make up of all most the entire country. Like myself there are millions of Americans who are multi-cultural.  There is only small amount of "pure-blood" people and the numbers are going down in each generation.  So when I realized that being part of many cultures was the staple of America, I realized I was American.

America was sought as the "Land of Opportunity" and it brought many cultures into it.  This movement of people to America is what makes it such a beauty.  Before America I would have never existed.  There is no way that I would've come to be if America hadn't existed.  I am a true product of America because without it I would probably not be here.  The chances of an Irish man going to China would've been very slim.