Greek Heritage

When people see my last name, their response is normally to ask "what are you?" or "that's Greek right?" ...so I have always referred to myself as being Greek. However, after doing the essay outline on American culture and participating in the activity we did in class, I realized, my heritage may be Greek, but my nationality is and always will be American. We so commonly define ourselves based on where our ancestors came from but not where we ourselves came from. When anyone becomes an American citizen, I believe they are American. Whether they come from Russia, Italy, Poland, or Greece, in one way or another, they become Americanized. I know I can pretty much apply every American value to my life. As we grow up, and life becomes more "serious", in a sense, we develop more and more of these values. Especially in High School. We are taught to manage our time with assignments and studying. Because of this, we value efficiency and become very inpatient when it comes to getting what we want or need. We compete in sports, and mostly start at a very young age. Competition is also brought into our education and our work place. Whether it's competing for the highest grade or for that wonderful promotion. In order to strive for that higher level of status, we use self-help and are initially looking out for ourselves. People say it's a "dog eat dog world".. but I think it is more often applied to our specific country. This need to get ahead and be self-sufficient is taking away from our moral ethics and our well-being. We are more materialistic, while other countries are spiritual. We value physical items more than thoughts and ideas. These values we have obtained over time, in my opinion, are probably not the best way to live a satisfying life.