Like many words of similar ambiguity, "American" can be construed in a variety of ways, depending on your background, upbringing, political party, race, etc. In many history books, this word is portrayed positively; in others, in a more negative light. Needless to say, from each individual spawns a different meaning of the word "American." The following is my own personal definition.
First of all, I must warn you that my idea of an American is not someone without faults. We have a whole bunch of them. We have mistakes in our past and we make mistakes until this day, each and every one of us. However, the most important part about making these mistakes is that we then learned from them; we grow from them. We're flawed, but we recognize it, and we search for ways to make those flaws better.
In searching for answers to those flaws, we are "young, scrappy, and hungry," as Lin Manuel Miranda likes to say. While we are not totally and literally "young, scrappy, and hungry" like our forefathers once were, our spirit holds true. We are a young country, and we are don't all look the same. We don't all have the backgrounds or the same cultures or the same upbringings, but these differences don't tear us apart. They are meant to make us stronger.
Furthermore, we in our scrappiness have a hunger for something more, otherwise known as the "American Dream." Not the American Dream as in that disillusioned idea of forever dreaming of something that can never be attained. Instead, it is the American Dream of knowing that there are betters ways of doing things and new things to do and forever striving to find those things, not only for ourselves but for our fellow citizens and for the citizens to come.
Our hunger doesn't end at innovation. Civilization is not based solely on innovation but on the premise that there is a hope to mankind, that there is something beautiful in love and in sympathy and in cooperation and in humanity itself. Sometimes, we fail to remember that basic plea, that basic plea to act in love for one another, the most basic definition that I have always associated with being an American. I don't believe this solely applies to America, and I don't believe we have always demonstrated it, but it is the vision of America that I have always pictured my kids growing up in. An America that cares.
I recognize that there a plethora of dimensions to this thing called "caring." Caring about the economic infrastructure, about safety, about prosperity, about peace. Above all, however, to me, being an American means that caring is also an act of love; an act of love, not only for your family and your friends and your acquaintances and your fellow citizens, but for humanity as a whole. An act of love that works to improve the lives of others not only because from them you will benefit or because it is your Constitutional duty to help them, but because it is your duty as a human and fellow human being to do so.
In the years to come, I have come to recognize that I will not agree on many things that is to come in the actions of our country. Even in years past, I know there were actions in which I have not always agreed. It is inevitable. However, in the years to come, my hopes for this country is that it will continue to live out the most important principle of my idea, and many other young hopefuls' idea, of an "American:" someone who lives out the idea of freedom, liberty, love, and compassion for all of the world, not just for themselves.
