My American Creed

This short essay is meant to show how ambition is and has been core to the American identity.

By Aidan Stojic from Bay High School in Ohio

          When I'm asked what my “American Creed” or what I think is a core value to the American identity I always come to the same value, an ambition that drives discontent. This value has been core to the American Identity throughout its history and in the present, and it makes perfect sense why. It takes Ambition to sail across an ocean to create a new society, it takes ambition to rebel against the world’s largest empire,and it takes ambition to demand equal rights under the law. It's an ambition that drives more than a million people every year to leave their homelands to emigrate to America to have a better life, despite other countries having easier immigration policies. It is a discontent with our stations in life due to that ambition, that drives us to be more, improving ourselves and always demanding more from ourselves. The fact that America has been home to countless inventors, philosophers, writers, scieners, and companies is no coincidence, it is the result of a society by and for people with ambition, and that rewards people for their ambitions. And, this is why despite current civil unrest, Americans are still able to keep innovating, as well as why the United States has arguably the most successful pluralistic society in the world. Simply put, the reason my American Creed is "an ambition that drives discontent" is because it is shown time and time again in America through her people and the innovations in America as a whole. And, overall it has allowed our society to remain strong in the face of adversity, and has allowed us to remain a society united by ideals.

Bay High School

1st Block

1st Block AP Gov

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