Several individuals from different ethnicities, races, and citizenships, compose a society. The United Sates allow us to have a close interaction with numerous individuals from diverse backgrounds. In my own case I have been able to interact with many incredible individuals from all over the world who come from extremely different backgrounds. I am a proud Mexican who cherishes respect towards diversity. Coming from a very suffered country I am able to understand not only what does it means to feel proud to be a Latino, but also I can feel acquainted with the pain and struggle that our community has to face every day.
Upon meeting me, not many people know that I am a first generation American. However, they are usually interested in the orgin of my last name. I am in fact Ukranian. Both my parents and my older sister were born in Ukraine. They immigrated to America in 1992 because of religious persecution that they were facing.
What does it mean to be an American today? Or rather, what does being an American entail? Does that pertain to a certain individual’s perspective? Or is Americanism defined through a collective consciousness projected around the world? Over the course of time, Americans have gone through various embodiments of who they are, without loosing the essence of what they represent.
The American experience is not unfamiliar to me, I have been visiting America since I was a child and as a child I always wanted to move to America. My first visit here I fell in love with the culture specifically the freedom of expression. However the opportunity did not emerge for me to move to America legitimately and as promising young child, I did not want to damage my future by moving to a country illegally where I could not live to my full potential. I stayed in Jamaica and I completed my University education as a registered nurse and had become comfortable with my life in Jamaica. I started working the spring of 2013 and upon receival of my first paycheck, I was reminded that this is not the place I wanted to be.
Every person as a citizen in america has responsibilities to his or her country. Many people complain and gripe about the state our country is in today. How can you change anything if you do not pull your own weight and strive to make the country better? If you ask anyone nowadays “what do you think your responsibility to america is?” you will most likely get a blank stare or something about paying taxes.
In my opinion being American means not only living here, but following the law and respecting your elders, but it also means doing the traditions and and my family that is going to one of my family member 's house for Easter this year we went to my cousin Melissa’s and that is an Easter I will never forget. I always dress up for Easter or at least the first part. This Easter it was my cousin Owens first Easter back from Hawaii and after I got there the first thing we went to do was go see how many sports balls we could, we could catch he won because he has a bigger wing span than me after we did that, we went and had an Easter egg hunt and even though I didn’t get a lot of eggs we had a good time and I know my cousins Neave and Amy and the
My Responsibility to America Freedom. Something every man and woman wish for, but only some receive. I was privileged with this right, because men and women risked their lives so I could live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Having this freedom allows me to vote, follow the 10 amendments, and to understand what freedom really means.
My identity has always felt inextricably linked to what Miami is. A city that is teeming with immigrants, a city with dreams stacked and slopped atop each other, and a city that is living proof of the failed American dream. I say so because of my early observation that generation after generation of immigrants often seemed to stay trapped in dead end jobs; I saw this within my own family – within my grandmother, my aunts and uncles, and even my cousins. Here it was even within my own family tree the deep implicit message that there was no way out of our socioeconomic level. When I made it into an Ivy League college, it was a message that was slowly re-enforced by the fact that my demographic was the most represented in the custodial staff rather than within my own classmates.
I used to have this grudges in my heart when everything go hard that would made me wanted to blame my parent. But I can’t because I was not raise to think that way. When I come to America, I was eleven years old and no one asked me if I wanted to come it just happen in a second. I was in a cold place with extended family that I never met before and that one person who raise me and made me feel secure was still back in the country. I had to lived months without her and next thing you know I adapted and convince myself they are doing this because the wanted the best for me.
“What was it like?” I asked, scrambling to keep up with my aunt. She paused, her tall thin frame standing in the doorway. Dishes lay scattered around us. Dinner had ended hours ago, and everybody was upstairs..
Becoming a us citizen of us from the time that I was in high school, I though in getting the citizenship through my mom,but I noticed that she was really scared of applying, so I didn 't bother her and chose to wait the require time to apply by myself after two years of waiting, I stared the process and the fist step was filling the application in Internet, second was taking the on us office and last was taking an oath, after all this steps finally I got my citizenship. When I stared applying with the us citizen office, I was eighteen years old and I was really scared and nervous of the process, But that dint stop me from starting the application. So I decided to fill the application on line with all my information and paying all the fees with my moms credit card, after that I had wait for one month and a half and while that I felt that the waiting time was taking for ever, but when I got the letter it makes me feel better knowing that they received my information and
Moving on to responsibilities as citizens, I believe we should protect our Bill of Rights. As I said before, the Bill of Rights is a majority of our rights in the United States, so it should be cherished. As citizens, our government needs to know that these rights are important to us and we believe that they are essential to a successful government. Also, I believe that we need to be aware of what is going on around us and speak when wrong is being done and keep our country safe. Adding on to that, we need to take care of our country by not littering and being environmentally responsible.
What are your responsibilities to America? Some people say their responsibility is to serve in the army, while others say that paying their taxes and serving jury duty when it comes up is enough to uphold their responsibility. Of many of the responsibilities we, American citizens, have, some of the most important are free speech to speak our opinions, educating ourselves in core classes, and voting, as it allows us to shape America in an image we want. The first of few are free speech.
In every country there are responsibilities. In America we as citizens have very many responsibilities. My responsibility to America is to honor the flag and those who fought and are fighting for it. We have many brave souls fighting to keep America free. It’s my responsibility to recognize the sacrifice that they made for America.
As a teenager moving to a new country with a different culture, different language, and being thousands of miles away from everyone I grew up with was not an easy change, however, that was precisely what I did in January of 2013 when I came to the United States with my father. My whole world changed since, and shaped my way of thinking. From learning English, adjusting to a new culture, experiencing my first snow and finding my way in my new country, my life has been an exciting adventure. My parents brought me to America almost 5 years ago to have a better life, and to get a better education.
