What Does It Mean to You to Be an American?
What is an American?
Living in America we are always asked the question, "What does it mean to you to be an American?" Everyone always responds differently to this question. Some people may say that Americans have to be proud; they have to follow the rules; but you also have to think about the different personality traits that Americans have, and how we act. Answering in this way may sway your initial thoughts about what Americans really are. Americans may be proud, they may be confident but they are also egotistical, entitled, pessimistic, overbearing and selfish.
From the moment that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, we have been using the advantages that we have been given to overpower people. Since the beginning of our creation we have been selfish. Our selfishness sprang up starting with the Native American people. We were able to take their land, overpower their defenses, and take advantage of their generosity. When we first came over, the Native Americans made room for us, but we ruined our relationship with them because we wanted more. We were never satisfied then, and we are still unsatisfied now. We start wars with people because we want their resources to help us become a stronger nation, and we will do anything to them until they give it up. We have killed off people, started wars and been the instigators of huge massacres, just to get what we think we deserve. As a nation, we really are bullies with selfish tendencies; we will use other countries to get what we want and we don't care what happens to anyone else. We may be helping ourselves to move forward, but we're also pushing others back in the process.
Being an American you might think that you are optimistic and full of life, but if you look at America as a whole you will realize that they are pessimists. It seems that in any circumstance American's will find the smallest things to complain about. They have the ability to hate change, and all the different bumps in the road that go along with the process. American's are able to walk into a situation and automatically find something negative. This negativity may be a way to avoid a problem, or get out of doing something. This then leads to the question; "What if everyone in the world acted like this?" Would anything ever get accomplished? What would the world turn into?
When you think about living in America it has many advantages. You have the opportunities to earn a living, to own a house and a car, but many people believe that because you live in America you should get everything that you want, without working for it. It may be true that when you compare the economies of different countries around the world you will notice that America has one of the highest. But if you look at which countries work the hardest, America would probably be at the bottom of the list. Countries in Africa, South America and Asia all have the hardest working people you will ever see. They have women walking miles and carrying heavy bundles of food on their heads; they have children who don't get to go to school because it's too far away and they have no means of transportation to get them there. They may only live on a dollar a month, and only make just enough to barely feed their families, but they work as hard as they can to survive. It may be a different type of hard working, but just think if any American were in that situation. What would they do? The hardship may just be too much for the entitled ways of the American people.