How do you define the United States? Well, technically by our borders and a complex set of laws that govern it, but it’s really so much more. It’s the land of opportunity, of hard work, and the American dream, and we don’t really realize how LUCKY we are to live here.
America is a land of immigrants, and Miami’s population happens to have the highest percentage of immigrants of any major city in the world. We’re examples to the idea that people can still come to America, work hard, succeed, and better the community in the process. But I realized recently, that it’s easy for most of us to take liberty for granted, because we have never had it taken from us.
I went to dinner with my grandfather about two weeks ago, and we got into the conversation of Cuba. Unlike all the other times we’ve talked about Cuba, this time we spoke about why it was so important for my grandfather and his family to get out of Cuba. He told me they weren’t hungry or suffering. But – they realized that all the changes that were happening in Cuba would eventually kill them. He told me, “We didn’t have to leave. Your grandmother had a very good job working closely with the Cuban government, and I loved working at the bank. We were a part of the few lucky ones that were able to keep our jobs, and continue living a decent lifestyle. However, something that Cuba no longer offered us was our freedom. And without freedom, you have absolutely nothing. You don’t make any choices. The reason we decided to leave was because I wanted your dad and the rest of our family to be able to decide where they wanted to work, where they wanted to travel to, what they wanted to watch and be involved in, and believe in anything they wanted to believe in.”
So this weekend while we celebrate July 4th with fireworks, barbecues, and traveling, take a minute to just realize how lucky we are to have everything we have. And that by living here we are blessed with the fact that we could dream to accomplish anything, and we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.