To Be American

I chose this work of creative non-fiction simply because of the title.  I consider myself very patriotic and I wanted to see what this story had to offer on what it means to be American. As I read the story, some of the lines, whether they were supposed to or not, made me laugh.

 "To be American you must prove you can laugh at yourself, in ironic self-deprecation if you are young, or wish to be hip and preternaturally young. Irony has nothing to do with laughter, of course, just as self-deprecation does not, but then to be young and American is all about taking yourself deathly seriously while pretending not to."

"To be American, you will be perpetually exhausted and feel bad about it, because no one in the world works as hard as Americans, especially in corporate America, where to desire time off  is almost criminal, or mortally
sinful—but who insisted it had to be so?"

Both of these parts brought a smile to my face. These lines just have so much truth in them.