What does it mean to be an American?

I recently went through an experience where I was stuck in the woods with no bathroom, only a fire to cook my food and everything I cooked was from scratch (ie had to kill and skin it myself!). I also had to carry everything through the mountains and had no car. I had to drink my water from a stream and sanitize it with iodine or boil it.

I've gone through experiences in my past where I was degraded and made fun of. When I got out of these experiences, I realized how fortunate I was to have the ability to get out of them and to choose a better life for myself, I have never been happier to be an American.

This is what it means to me to be proud to be an American:

No matter the fact that I am a woman, that I am strong willed and stubborn, proud and the youngest daughter of 5.... no matter what I do not have to obey cultural customs like in other countries.

1. I can vote as a woman, choose my own path and husband, have control over when I marry and have kids, how many kids I have. I can dress as I like, drive my own car, have my own home.

2. As a person, my birth order does not dictate what happens to me. I can be a banker, lawyer, nurse, politician, farmer, or mechanic, even though my father worked in a factory and my mother cleaned houses.

3. I can be the first person in my family to get my Masters and my dreams can take me anywhere.

4. Hope can be turned into reality with determination; I can dream in color; if I don't like the way my life is going I can change it for the better.

Despite the hundreds of problems right now with our country and government, I still want to remind everyone what its like to be an American. When you go without the things that you're used to, be it flushing toilets or people treating you with diginity, it makes you realize how precious they really are.

After I got back from the field (the time I went to the woods a few weeks ago in the military, described above), I have never been happier to see colors of my flag flying in the wind, not just because I didn't get what I as a "spoiled" American was used to, but because it reminded me that without the freedom to think and do and make in our country, we wouldn't have most of the things that make our lives easier and better, cleaner and healthier.

What does it mean to be an American? Please tell me what you think.

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