The Home of the Free - Some Personal Reflections Following My Arrival in the U.S.

We are so blessed to live in America. Don’t ever take that for granted.

After having the opportunity to live and go to school in China for a month, it overwhelms me with great joy to be back in America. It’s the smallest things that make the biggest difference. My parents and sister picked me up from the airport a few days ago and we went straight to our favorite Mexican food restaurant. I had to have me some chips and salsa, Tex-mex, and sweet tea. On Saturday, as I sat on the plane waiting to fly out of Hong Kong, tears started coming to my eyes, happy to know that I would soon be home but also knowing that I was leaving the wonderful and beautiful Hong Kong. The lessons, culture, and friends I acquired from my summer abroad however will stay with me forever.

My first night home I had the best shower I'd had in five weeks, and for the first time in over a month I slept back in my own bed. My unnecessarily wonderful, comfy, and large bed. I haven’t watched much television since I’ve been home. I’ve never been much of a tv person, but after living without it for over a month, it doesn’t seem like something I absolutely need to incorporate into my everyday life. Why do we get to enjoy these pleasures and people on the other side of the world will never have them?

I never realized how important where you are born is, and how much of a difference it makes. I looked around and saw these people in China who will never know, who can’t even fathom, the type of life we live as Americans; not because they aren’t willing to work hard or because they don’t deserve it, but because they are stuck. They are stuck in Communist China, or Thailand, or even Hong Kong, or wherever, and they will never have the opportunity to live a better life. They are content because they don’t know any different. And that breaks my heart.

When my friend Ellen asked a man on the subway what he wanted most in life, he answered, “To learn English.” Out of everything in the world! That’s what he wanted. When we spoke to a different guy we met (also at the subway station) who was asking us all these questions about America and our government and how things work, we asked why he doesn’t move to America, and he said, “I want to.” It’s the little things in life, people. It’s the simple fact that we were born in the United States of America. We are given, granted, and blessed with freedom and the right to choose from the very moment we are born. Those are things many, many people across the world will never experience. So don’t take it for granted. Don’t badmouth your country. Go live across the globe for a month, hell- for a week, and then tell me what you think about America. Your perception will definitely change.

I have never felt so much pride, so blessed, to be an American. I can’t tell you how many customs forms I had to fill out amidst all of my traveling, and every time I had to fill out which country I was from, I always smiled. It’s a privilege. It’s a blessing. It’s not something to throw in people’s faces and say “I can act/do/say _____ because I’m American.” Don’t be ignorant, and don’t take it for granted. Just be happy you’re American, and love your country. I know I sure do.

“I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today,
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land.
God bless the USA.”

-Lee Greenwood