A Day in the Life of Me(lissa): Happy birthday, America!

Happpy Early Friday!

Which means....

What makes this weekend special is (for Americans) that it is 4th of July weekend!! The celebration of our great country.

The good U.S. of A will celebrate her 239th birthday this Saturday. While in comparison of other countries who have been around for many dynasties, our country is still a baby. (At least now I don't feel so old.) In the past 238 years, there have been many ups and downs, great accomplishments and terrible struggles, but, while we still have issues that we need to work on, this is a time to celebrate our country for all we are.

Over the 19 and a half years of my life, I heard many versions of the same phrase or verse. "If you are always looking for or focusing on your faults or failures, how will you know to appreciate the accomplishments you have made?" And while this was meant to inspire me to look and appreciate all that I accomplished and succeed, it also can apply to our great nation.

A professor I had in my first year of college who taught me that many people tend to focus on our weaknesses and faults instead of realizing our strengths and how those strengths could be used to help. (That's a shout out to you, Roxanne!) I believe this applies to our country. Many people (Americans and foreign people alike) tend to focus what is wrong with our country and why we are not as great as we are.

It is for that reason I am dedicating this post to our Founding Fathers who put this country on the right path to all we have achieved.

These achievements are a reminder of much our country has accomplished.

We have put man on the moon in 1969. "One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." -Neil Armstrong

The Panama Canal in 1914. And we turned the canal over to Panama on the last day of 1999.

Americans, first by US Government, were responsible for coming up with the concept of the Internet in the 1960's.

Another accomplishment that is credited to the USA is the cell phone by the Motorola company in 1973.

Americans were the first to mass produce a car, specifically the Model T Ford, that normal, everyday people could afford. They sold for as low as $260 and around 15 million were sold.

We freed the slaves from being property and segregation and giving them the rights as citizens of the United States. Started by Abraham Lincoln during his term as president and continued through the 1960's.

Most recent accomplishment for the United States is legalizing gay marriage.

And those are just a few of the many accomplishments the United States has made.

Many immigrants come to the US for the many freedoms provided in the Constitution. And those freedoms are protected by the US Military and others. And for that I thank you all who put their lives on the line so I can live.

I'm proud to call myself a US citizen, but that doesn't mean I don't know the faults and failures and the weaknesses of this great country. I just chose not to focus on it.