What is an American?

           Since no one really is from here, except maybe the Native Americans, we cannot really say that there is an American. But since the U.S has had almost 200 years of existence it has some of its own characteristics that makes the people that follow them "American".
          Many of our ancestors have come here looking for a better life, leaving their homeland behind. They bring with them their culture and hope for their children to continue to live as if they were being raised in their homeland. But what most of the time what happens is that the children become more like what the country they are in is, in this case the U.S. And then after many generations the outcome will be a person who solely believes they are American since many of their ancestors have lived their whole life here, they cannot connect with the place where they are originally from. They act like the other people that consider themselves American and they have the right to say that because what defines what you are is what you grew up doing and believing in.
         This reminds me of a book I just read about how a girl found out she had been adopted and that her biological parents wanted her back and she didn't know what to do. She had grown up in a family and those were the people who cared for her and loved her. But just because now someone is telling her that isn't true it doesn't mean it should stop being that way. The place in which you grow up in shapes you to be who you are. This girl doesn't know what to do because she really isn't from one place nor another, she cannot connect to her biological family but what she thought to be her family really isn't. Most of us cannot classify ourselves because we too are not from one place nor another. But even though  America isn't our native homeland, we grew up with its culture and language making it easier for us to say that we are American because we really cant connect to our native homeland the way we do with the place in which we are living in.
              So overall, I believe that all of us that follow the "American" culture can classify ourselves as American because it is what we can mostly relate to.