Samples from Sam Blog: What is an American?

 Introductory Post

Hello! I am Samuel "Sam" Kim, a senior at UMBC studying in Psychology as well as a minor in Entrepreneurship. My interests and hobbies include listening to music as well as playing music (The alto saxophone shown below is the instrument I play). I also workout, do amateur sketches, watch movies and shows, I sing and do some dance and enjoy playing video games. One of my hobbies I am recently into is collecting vinyl records, as a musician and avid enthusiast of music. Most of my interests pertain to fiction, from creating fictional stories, ideas, brainstorming inventions, or even melodies or piecing together how one idea is related to another. It intrigues me how so much of the world's phenomena and ideas tie in to each other. In a more professional topic, my goals and aspirations are to graduate with my degrees and then go to graduate school in order to obtain a masters in Psychology. Once I do, I would be able to get into obtaining experience and working with patients as well as other therapists and learn from them. Once I do obtain the necessary time and skills, I would open up my own practice and proceed to seek out and aid those in need of my services around the world. I hope to travel around and be of personal aid for those who are far and require the assistance to recover mentally. My people skills would come into play here as I often engage in conversations with people, no matter who they may be, and try to allow them to warm up and be who they want to be without judgment or fear. I would always try to solve problems and do my best to figure out issues that may exist by viewing the matter in a specific angle to determine how to approach the subject. However, we are only human. I cannot truly read someone's mind perfectly and I can only do so much to make a person smile, feel alive, and gain trust. I am eager to help those who are in need of help and we all shall make it someday.

What is an American? This term has been thrown around a lot by many patriotic people throughout history. For a more literal sense, an American is any citizen of the United States of America. For a more metaphorical sense, I would define an American as a balanced individual in education, as it is crucial that a person have the necessary education to know and understand that things are not so black and white, that everything is much more complicated than a simple binary notion. As such, there are a variety of people that originate from different backgrounds of all shapes and sizes. Religion, race, cultures, practices, all may be different, but the good American man and woman is able to respect those with such differences without prejudice, bias, or negativity that prohibit both parties to learn from each other and to engage in activities that can benefit both. An American is able to live in a diverse country called America and there is nothing wrong with that. We all have problems, we all have feelings and emotions, we all exist.