Explain What It Means To Be An American

What does it mean to be an American? Never given it much thought before. I just thought, "Well, I'm here. In America. The land of the free and the stupid. Americans can't drive, our government is... well lets just say decent, and it definitely isn't filled with the wisest of old men/women. The main things I feel people that were born in America focus on, is sports or becoming famous. We already have it well enough. Just because of our individual rights and all. So why not make it better by getting more money, right?" That's what I thought on a daily basis when talking to new people or just seeing new people. Who am I to criticize anyways, right? I'm not quintessential, at this moment I'm not even driving. I mean I could be just as terrible as the other Americans that think they can drive. I would like to become famous and rack in some cash as well, but I still have my mind set on college. So after thinking about it, I came to the realization that what being an American means to me is, individuality.

This isn't a movie such as Footloose or Dirty Dancing, where the government has made laws against us being ourselves much like the town did on Footloose or like the father did to Frances 'baby' on Dirty Dancing. This is like Lambada, where we are free to be ourselves. Dress any way we can, say whatever we want, listen to whatever we want, write whatever we want, have beliefs in whatever god or person that we want (Although if too many people started to have beliefs in a person, that would be questioned). But you get my point. Not many countries are like America. They have