Grade 11
Teacher: Debbie Moore
"Give me your
tired, your poor,/ your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/ the wretched
refuse of yo ur teeming shores./ Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me:/
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These are the words which echo to
all who are dreaming and have dreamed about coming to the land of the free. It
is a quote which not only welcomes all of the immigrants to the land of the
free; it defines what America stands for. America is characterized by its open
arms, its warming welcome, its melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. Without
the variety of backgrounds and people there would be no America. What I have to
give you is not just another teenage perspective on what it means to be an
American, but a first-hand perspective of an immigrant who has came to a place
where all dreams are not only possible, but likely.
I moved to America on
July 17, 1994, but it was years later before I found out what it truly means to
be an American. They say America is the land of opportunity, but I did not
value this saying until a few years ago when I asked my dad why we moved to America.
he had a good job in Canada; he was working for his father as a land developer.
but he always wanted to start his own company, Matthews Southwest, and the government
in Canada was limiting his chances for his dream to become a reality. He tried to find a place to start his new
company and one day he came to Texas for some business. In the next few months
we arrived here; Anytown, USA. The first day we arrived we were greeted by a
flock of neighbors all making sure we had everything we needed. Everyone
welcomed us with a smile on their faces and a plate of cookies in their hands.
And to our surprise when more neighbors moved in, they got the same treatment.
This was by far the greatest difference between Canada and Anytown; the smile
on your cashier's face, the warm greeting you get from all of your neighbors,
and that friendly wave from the man who just gave you the first available
parking spot in a full parking lot. Everywhere we went there Ire were warm
hearts and an even warmer smile. But in Canada there would have been no
"welcoming party" at our new house, there would have been no smile on
the new neighbor's faces, and the man in the parking lot would not have even
acknowledged our presence. America gave my dad a chance to start over and make
his business, Matthews Southwest, and it also gave my family a good place to
grow up.
America holds I key
to my future. It is a place where all the people around me care about my
future, for they know that it will not only benefit me it will benefit
America's future. The people of Anytown, USA are not ignorant; they see beyond
the veil which holds back most nations. It is America who has looked to the
future and has seen the benefits of allowing immigrants and in doing so have
given my family a gift, a gift of a lifetime: allowing any dream of mine to
become a reality.
The land of
opportunity is where I plan to stay. It is where I will grow and plant my
family's roots. Although I am only sixteen years old I have seen the
differences between Canada, one of the more advanced nations, and America. I
have seen the corrupt government, the lack of patriotism, the depressed faces.
I have seen behind the curtain, I know what it is like not to be an American
and I know what it truly means to be an American; an American is someone who
has been given the gift of having any dream become a reality. And this is what
America means to me.