What It Means to Be American

To begin with, I was born in a small country called Ecuador. Yes, Ecuador, not equator. I was born and raised in a Latino household where much of the world was hidden from me. That was until the age of 8 when my mom decided that it was the best to take me with her to an unknown, at that time, land. It was about a year later that I found out I was in the United States. Crazy, right? What can I say, I was a very naive child.

America is called the land of opportunity, the land to see and to make change. Barack Hussein Obama, is a perfect example. HIs mother Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas. His father, Barack Obama Sr, was born in Kenya. He was chose for a special program to attend a college in The United States. He studied in the University of Hawaii, where they met. They got married in 1961 and had Barack in that same year. Many years later, in 2008 he would be elected as the United State’s first African-American president. After so many years, as a nation we took a step forward by electing our first black president, not only for one term but for two.

Literally, I am from Hong Kong, China. I moved to the United States in 2002 and settled in Wisconsin for my middle and high school education.

While preaching about unity, it would seem almost hypocritical for Obama to be set apart from his audience because of his role, and so he begins by proving that he is similar to his audience through his use of anecdotes and being humble. Obama starts humbling himself by stating how it is an “honor” for him to be there on stage because his “presence [there] is pretty unlikely” (1). He then elaborates by telling his background story: his poor father from Kenya immigrating to “a magical place, America” to study on scholarship, and his mother’s parents who served America and survived after the war through democratic programs, G.I. Bill and F.H.A. Even though his parents weren’t rich, Obama still had the opportunity to attend a prestigious

To begin with, you need to understand where I’m from. I am from a New England state called “Massachusetts.” I grew up in a city named “Worcester.” It’s pronounced “wista or wister.” I lived most of my life in a shared apartment, I owned one floor, on “Dustin Street.” In the end, I am from Worcester, Massachusetts.

My father has to change places as part of his job and that’s a reason why I don’t know the specific place I was raised in. Since I was born, I have lived in ten different homes in five different cities in two different countries: UAE and Pakistan.

“I saw that my life in America –the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I’d witness in Chicago – all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away”(“Barack Obama Biography”.1). This quote gives a small insight and overview on how Barack Obama’s biographies, speeches, and other quotes such as the one above were inspired by his average childhood with having an absent father, his parents separated at a young age and living with his maternal grandparents. His early careers beginning as an organizer, starting politics and later becoming a senator. Lastly with his adventurous travels with his transits to Kenya, Indonesia, and Chicago. Barack Obama’s biographies, speeches and quotes were inspired by his average childhood, early careers and adventurous travels (“Barack Obama”, 2).

"Originally? I'm from Michigan, but I went away to Oregon for collage, and now I'm here."

Like I mean where were you born? You said you were a ‘modern nomad’ but where is your family from?”

For many centuries, the American Presidents were looked upon as being white and authoritative leaders. In addition, African Americans were observed as the less dominate individuals, and were frequently discriminated against because of the color of their skin. Yet in 2008, Barack Hussein Obama II was elected the 44th and current president, correspondingly the first African-American president of the United States of America. He was born in the beautiful state of Hawaii. Barack Obama is a politically successful man, yet growing up was not easy on him. Yet today Barack is currently the most realistic agent of change.

Obama stood as a relatable speaker, and he used easily to understand words for audiences of many ages, and said, “Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack.” Showing in his words and his expressions how he was not wealthy person growing up and how it could have been anybody instead of him, but by hard work he got that far.

When I meet a new acquaintance, I anticipate their question, “So, where are you from?”

He was a black kid with a white mother experiencing the heartland of America. He developed an appreciation for the ways of life these people lived. Surely, because of his background, his mother, and who he was, he was treated in many respects like a valued member of every community where he found himself. Still, he was able to talk in a more intimate way about the racial issues in the United States because he had seen both sides of the tracks, so to speak. Obama writes about how he viewed himself as being both black and white. His mother was the person he cared for the most, and like most kids, he lived a pretty normal experience with his grandparents. This caused him not to see his grandparents as old white people, but rather, as people close to him that loved him. In addition, his ethnicity caused him to make friends of many different types, which helped him later form a better perspective on the issues of various groups. As he wrote, “To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets” (Obama 100).

When Barack Obama stood before a cheering crowd in his home state Illinois and announced his candidacy, no believed that this guy had any chance of winning the nomination. Majority of Americans did not believe that the country was actually ready for an African-American president with a promise of changing the course of politics in Washington. However, on November 4, 2008, for the first time, the citizens of the United States elected an African-American president with a name Barack Hussein Obama. It proved to be one of the most fascinating presidential elections in American history. The power of democracy once again proved to be the only thing necessary for the triumph of a person. And his inauguration on January 20, 2009, inspired not only

A common question people like to ask is “Where are you from?” I’ve always wrestled with how to properly answer this question. I didn’t know if I should answer with my birth place, my parent’s nationality or the area I spent most of premature life at. My family have moved a lot over our life time, so much that people started to question if my parents where in the military moving from base to base. But they weren’t, my parents emigrated from Nigeria to America in the mid 1980’s. Their first stop in America was Dallas, Texas. In Dallas my mother gave birth to both of my older sisters. My family struggled for a well before I was born. My mother worked as a cleaning lady in a hotel and my father was an ice-cream man driver. After 7 years of the hot state which is Texas, my parents decide to go north and move to Minneapolis, Minnesota in pursuit of having better education and career options, so they could properly take care of the family.