The seagulls have started chirping in the morning again, and the sun lingers just a little longer each evening. Winter in Rochester is finally coming to an end, and with it, a journey I began two years ago. Now, as I inch toward graduation, I’ve increasingly found myself trying to answer a question that’s followed me for years: What makes us American?
When I asked my dad this exact question, he recalled growing up in the coastal city of Trivandrum, India in the 70s seeing the Statue of Liberty on television and thinking to himself:
“This. This is the place where a man could truly be free.”
In 1993, at the ripe age of 27, he stepped onto American soil for the first time in New York City. He was old enough to understand what he was leaving behind, but young enough to believe in what might lie ahead. What stayed with him beyond the thrill of the skyline and the scale of it all was the feeling that he could exist here free of judgment. There was room to be understood without being analyzed, and that freedom extended beyond just the law. It was in the culture.
“That’s the beauty of the U.S. Here, you’re free to be whoever you are,” my dad reflected.
My own journey in Rochester has mirrored his sentiment. In hindsight, I realize my upbringing was very sheltered. By coming to Simon Business School and meeting classmates from Brazil to Bangladesh, my worldview has expanded in ways I hadn’t anticipated. At Simon, I assumed the greatest thing I would walk away with would be a degree. Instead, this May, I’ll leave with something far greater: a lifetime of friendships.
Learning alongside my peers from all over the world, whose dreams sounded so similar to mine, I began to understand that we have far more in common than what sets us apart. We have the same conviction to step into uncertainty rather than remain in familiarity and the same desire to build a life that feels meaningful. It is that desire that makes us American.
Being American cannot be reduced to birthplace alone. So many of the people who embody the qualities I associate with this country weren’t born here, and those who were, continue to redefine what it means.
America doesn’t always fulfill its promises. It wrestles with its own contradictions. There are moments when belonging feels conditional and judgment arrives faster than understanding. Yet, the belief that something better is possible continues to draw people in.
Maybe that’s why we believe America is the land of possibilities. And perhaps that belief is the truest definition I can offer. That’s what makes each of us American is not a single trait or story, but the shared conviction that tomorrow can hold more than today, and our confidence to pursue it.
