The American Spirit

It doesn’t matter where you came from; it matters where you’re going. The American spirit shows when during crisis and everyday life we stay united as citizens despite our differences as people. We aren’t always perfect, but being an American is having strong nationalism. It doesn’t matter that you may be from someplace outside of the U.S. but if you’re willing to go through the process of becoming a citizen, you can be an amazing United States citizen.

Condoleezza Rice of Birmingham, AL, Professor of Political Science at Stanford, says, “It doesn’t matter where you come from; It only matters where you’re going in life. This was the most impactful part of the documentary because one struggle in some Americans’ lives is income, and the amount of income could certainly affect the clothes you're wearing; but it shouldn’t affect how far you make it in life. That’s the difficult part about college because to be a successful citizen you usually have to got to college. You then get a degree, and find a well paying job in your field. Typically if you don’t go to college or even graduate just from high school, jobs become extremely hard to find.

Another quote from Condoleezza Rice says “education is key”. It’s a short motto but an important one for all people to know. Education, in the long run, will always help you be successful. Knowledge is power, as many say. An American education is like shoelaces to your shoes. You could wear the shoe, but without the laces you trip or your shoes fall off, right? If you had laces you’d walk fine because your shoes don’t keep falling off. They seem quite useless at first, but you realize how hard it is without your shoelaces or education in this case. In rare cases like Steve Jobs you can drop out of college and be a multi- millionaire, but he still used his knowledge from books and professors to become the tech genius he is.

Madeline Lisaius, a Stanford Student, says, “The American creed is that our opinions may be different, they may be different but as an American citizen we are allowed to have unique opinions.” This can be true in some ways, but being an American also means that you may be hated for your opinion. A supporter of a Confederate flag may think his views on the subject are right, but I know a 1,000 people that wouldn’t agree. The trade off to being an American is learning that opinions and personal thoughts are always going to have supporters and haters. That’s a big part of it all because people are entitled to their own opinion.

It doesn’t matter where you came from; it matters where you’re going. This can be true, but where you come from can be the reason you don’t become an American citizen or be the best citizen you can be. The creed of being an American can be translated in many ways, but the being able to have opinions on a matter is the most important part of being an American citizen.