America Through My Eyes

The Founding Collection | Prompt 02

When you think about the America you have experienced, what people, places, moments, and memories define it for you?

America is often described through its history, politics, institutions, and national identity. But beyond those larger narratives are millions of individual experiences that shape how people understand the country they call home.

For some, America is found in the neighborhoods where they grew up, the traditions their families passed down, and the communities that helped shape who they became. For others, it is defined by the places they've traveled, the people they've encountered, the challenges they've faced, or the moments that changed how they understood their country.

No two people experience America in exactly the same way. Our backgrounds, communities, circumstances, and personal histories shape how we see the world around us. The America one person knows may look very different from the America experienced by someone living just a few miles away.

We want to know what America has looked like through your eyes.

Your experiences can help future generations understand what everyday life in America has been like for people of different backgrounds, circumstances, and generations. Beyond the historical events and national headlines are the personal memories, family traditions, relationships, and ordinary moments that rarely find their way into history books.

Whether your experiences have been shaped by belonging, opportunity, hardship, exclusion, community, or a combination of these, your perspective is an important part of America's history. As you prepare your response, we encourage you to think about the people, places, memories, and experiences that have shaped your understanding of America.

Questions to Help You Reflect

1. What was the America you grew up knowing?

Think about the neighborhood, town, city, or community where you spent your early years. What was everyday life like? What traditions, relationships, or experiences shaped your earliest understanding of the country around you?

2. Who are the people and communities that have shaped your experience of America?

Consider the family members, neighbors, friends, teachers, coworkers, or strangers who have influenced your understanding of this country. What did these relationships teach you about community, belonging, or the people who share this nation?

3. Have you experienced moments that changed how you viewed America?

Perhaps you witnessed an act of extraordinary kindness, experienced discrimination or exclusion, lived through an important historical event, or encountered a community whose experiences were different from your own. What happened, and how did it affect your understanding of the country?

4. How has the America you know changed throughout your lifetime?

Think about the places, communities, traditions, and ways of life you have experienced. What has changed for the better? What has become more difficult? What do you miss, and what are you grateful has changed?

5. What do you wish more people understood about the America you have experienced?

If someone who had never visited your community or lived through your experiences were to read your story, what would you want them to understand? What parts of your America do you believe are often overlooked, misunderstood, or forgotten?

Why we feel this story is important

History often remembers the events that shaped a nation, but it does not always preserve the everyday lives of the people who experienced them.

The neighborhoods we grew up in, the people who influenced us, the communities we belonged to, and the moments that changed us all contribute to a larger understanding of what America has been and continues to become.

By sharing your experiences, you are helping preserve a record of America as it has been lived, not simply as it has been described.