I think I first realized I was an American in 3rd grade. That was my first year taking the ISAT and I had to fill out all of these questions. It asked me for my ethnicity. My teacher told me to bubble in Latino. She said even though i was filling in Latino, I was still an American since I was born in the U.S. I guessed that it depended on our parents and where they came from.
Many people think that to be an American you need to have citizenship. I think this isn't true. If someone has lived here for their whole lives except for when they were born they should be considered an American. If someone was born somewhere else and lived in America for his or her whole life and went back to their homeland people will doubt that they are from there because of how Americanized they look and act.
I also never thought of myself as a true American because the definition to what an American is varies in many different ways. I don't believe that where you were born matters, you were raised in America and it makes no difference whatsoever. The only difference is how you look, but those are just your genes so I don't get that whole, legal-illegal stuff. I guess I never really cared about where people were born.
I realized I was an American much later like in 6th grade when I learned about American History. I was proud to call myself an American
ReplyDeleteI knew I was an american was when I said the pledge of allegiance which started around 1st grade. I win :D. Yeah and that thing about bubbling in ethnicity is totally unnecessary. We're all Americans aren't we? Thing is a American isn't defined by their color or race so why even have to give this information?
ReplyDeleteBut someone could still live here, and not live like a common "American", which i thing still makes them a foreigner.
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