by Andy Rew

Created on: July 20, 2009   Last Updated: July 22, 2009

What American-ness Means to Me, & My American Experience

One comes to understand as a young child that being patriotic, loving the country into which one was born is a very important part of living. However, we receive this information and how-to in very different ways. Throughout our lives as American citizens, we are bombarded with multiple arguments that seem to illustrate the perfect American Ideal. It may be manifested in a scathing sense of nationalism or by simply hanging bunting on the 4th of July; nonetheless, our countrymen are taught to respect and love the nation fiercely, and to conduct themselves as Americans. In my own life experience, I believe I have come to grasp a fairly uncommon idea of what American-ness is. Because of my upbringing and the socio-economic environment in which I was raised, I truly believe that I hold a unique portrait of American ideals in my mind. From my household, education, and life experience I have gleaned a sense for being truly and, as I see it, correctly, American.

I have grown up in a fairly unique household by normal standards, with both of my parents being professionals and working such that we can live comfortably in one of the wealthier suburbs of Detroit. My upbringing and education set me up to hold the views that I do now regarding American-nessboth of my parents, in the face of a starkly conservative and Old-money community, always taught me to be respectful to everybody I met and see the value in opinions of others, regardless of their nationality or beliefs. I attended a small private school for all my pre-collegiate years, and this further enriched my development of a unique American ideal; I was attending my classes with a very diverse student body, in a small and connected environment where everybody knew everybody, and so I refused to look at friends along discriminatory lines. My grade school environment was challenging but extremely fruitful, enriching my mind with music and art from across the world and a curriculum based on understanding history, not memorizing it. I was able, even in my youngest years, to hear distinguished speakers from far-off lands speak in the auditorium, learn about the intricacies of other cultures' way of life, and then go paint the stars and stripes in art class for our U.S.A. unit. We were evaluated on a unique honor system, and I look at the values I was taught as child as those which shape my opinion of American-ness. Throughout all this, I was never taught

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