Despite all the tough economic stuff we’ve been dealing with lately, what say we take a moment to think about what makes America special to us?
I’m a first generation immigrant turned naturalized American who came to this country almost 25 years ago to get an advanced education in the field I wanted to specialize in. I had planned to return to my home country soon after finishing my studies, but that didn’t pan out. I ended up staying in the United States because of the job opportunity I was soon afforded and the financial benefits I received by staying here. I’ve often wondered how my life would have turned out if I had stuck to my original plans. Do you ever wonder what your alternative life could have been like?
All I can say is that America has been a wonderful, incredible place to live in. I went through some pretty big adjustments to get settled here, but it was all worth it. Thanks to America I can:
- Drive by myself. The stereotype is true (not elaborating), I’m not a good driver and it was impossible for me to learn how to drive anywhere else.
- Drink water from the tap.
- Stop worrying about mosquitoes.
- Have a fast internet connection.
- Work at home.
- Use Tivo. I haven’t quite warmed up to online television.
- Invest in the stock market without having as much fear of being wiped out.
- Have a solid chance at success even while starting from scratch (or nothing). I guess that’s why they call it “The American Dream“.
- Start a business without paying lots of random fees that don’t have anything to do with the business.
- Do many things without having to pay anyone off first. 😉
- Hole up at home and never EVER get bored!
I could go on and on… but I’ll spare you the details.
What I don’t like about this place so much? Sometimes things get too politically correct for my tastes… 😉 and we don’t have these available to the masses.
How Do I Love America? Let Me Count The Ways
I feel patriotic and I’ll tell you why. I’m basing some of my reasons on this political joke archive and Gizmodo. A lot of this is also snark, so I hope you can bear with me.
- This country is so accommodating. There are handicapped parking places everywhere, even in front of a skating rink.
- Only in America…do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a diet Coke.
- Only in America…do banks leave both doors to the vault open and then chain the pens to the counters. And where are the armed guards? (That’s an honest question!)
- Only in America…do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage!
- Only in America…do we buy ourselves answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to converse with in the first place.
- Only in America…do we have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.
- Only in America…do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
- Where else can we get these crazy toys? Thank you Gizmodo for these finds!
- George Bush Toilet Brush (aka Bowl Buddy) for $16.95.
- Hillary Clinton Nutcracker (ugh!) for $19.99.
- Guns in knives. Or is it knives in guns? For $699.
- Yay for cheap barbecues on huge grills! And grillz!
- Many forms of work are decently rewarded. And we all love winners — America loves its champs and pays them well. Even eating is a sport where you can get prize money! You may even have a better shot at this than with the lottery, if you work hard enough.
- We love to work ourselves to the bone today, so that we can afford to relax and live lazy lives tomorrow.
- We’re ready to multi-task in style!
- There’s a market for everything. Lots of business ideas, dumb or otherwise, come to fruition here. This place is a haven for senseless inventions that will command some of your dollars. Sometimes, we just can’t resist!
Viva Americana! What else is great about the U.S.? Well now it’s even much easier to get a piece of it! Buy America, it’s on sale right now 😉 . All humor aside, I feel truly blessed to be living here.
Image Credit: Craziest American Flag Art @ InventorSpot.com
Copyright © 2008 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
My mom came here from Cuba. I grow up in the US. This is the greatest country in the world, but don’t confuse a great country with a good investment. Everyone likes to talk about stock for the long run, but between 1966-1981 they went nowhere. Sometimes they go down for long periods. I will give you 3 reasons stocks will go down @
http://www.theinvestingspeculator.com
I’ve found America to be a country with one of the highest level of patriotism.
On a separate note, I love the fast food with diet coke line 🙂
I once went to Starbucks and asked for a coffee light frappucino and they asked whether I wanted whip cream!
David,
Yes they always want to entice you with that whipped cream wherever you order coffee around here. 😉
It’s always been a policy for coffee places to offer this as far back as I can remember. When I was in college around 20 to 25 years ago, they were already asking me that same question whenever I picked up my daily coffee in between classes!
I’m not surprised whipped cream demand is booming around here… 😀
It’s just weird that they are asking when I wanted coffee light! 🙂 After I said no, the lady there actually said.. yup make sense.. in my mind I was like “duh…”
That “American” cat is pretty funny! Hope you all had a good holiday. Our fireworks scene was tame this year.
“Only in America…do we have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.”
Thanks for the giggle!!!
Democratic societies definitely benefit its people.
it’s nice to be proud of your country; me too proud of my country, India
All this is nice, a real “American Dream”, but what about the country you left? The country which perhaps cannot brag about diet Coke, cheeseburgers in huge amounts, pure water in the taps and crazy toys? But the country where perhaps you might have left your closest people, with which your funniest remembrances can be connected with? From which factors is patriotism built up for you?
It is always great to hear of first-generation immigrants who end up loving this country as much (and sometimes more) than those who have roots here from long ago. It’s an amazing country, it has its flaws and many on both sides love to speak out against the leader (whoever it may be at the time), but this is all just another example of what makes our country great; we can disagree about many things, but we’re still an American people and never face the threat of division or civil war. Many of the issues at hand today would throw many a country into a civil war!