What it means to be an American

Being an American is like relationships, it takes both people to make it work. After getting through the rough times, you’ll glide through life together. Being an american takes one to try their hardest, taking chances and opportunities, and living your dreams with success. You can do a lot of things on your own, but doing things together, that will make nothing impossible.

Living the dream of being an American takes the courage to live your dream, so that it can allow you to strive with greatness. Every person has a dream, it’s a part of life.There are certain people however, who want their dream to come true so bad, that they eventually do. Walt Disney is still known to this day for Disney World, Disneyland and the whole Disney corporation. This million dollar company was all started by one mouse, one idea, that blossomed throughout time. He never gave up on his dream and that’s how everyone should think like.

Another example, Americans who achieve success put in hard work and give one hundred and ten percent. In the movie, My All American, Freddie Steinmark would work hard everyday to get better. He had speed, a gifted talent, however; because of his height, he had to put in the effort to be better than the rest. When you mix god given talent with character and work, you get an all star. The difference between talent and effort is the mind set. Talent thinks they’re good enough, effort always finds a way to get better. That separates the successful and the average.

Most importantly, you have to take the opportunity when you get it. Lou Gehrig was a secondary player, but when the starter thought he was the best, he took a day off. That gave Lou his first game in the MLB and he took the other guy’s spot. He eventually went into the hall of fame, however he died of a disease. We call it the Lou Gehrig disease name for the player who overcame challenges and did astounding things. That shows why you should take the chance and overcome your fears. We’d rather look back knowing that we tried, than wishing that we would’ve taken the chance.

When one considers success, taking opportunities, and living your dreams, it is clear to see that this is what being an American is all about. Having freedom and doing what you love. Condoleezza Rice once said, “It doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you’re going.’ That helps out all kinds of people, people with hard backgrounds, poverty, starvation, all that doesn’t matter anymore, just the future. Someone once said, “The past is in the past, and the future is in the future.” Forgive and forget, you can’t change the past, but you can create your future.

Tad T. 6th period