The Moment I Knew I was an American..

I think the moment i knew I was an American was when I took a school trip to Paris in the middle of 8th grade. Nothing felt too different at first when I was with the 20 other Americans from my grade school. Sure, we saw all sorts of amazing pieces of art and interesting landmarks, but most of the people in those kinds of places are tourists, so we didn't feel all that out of place. 
However, we did stay with an actual French person our age there. Probably the minute I arrived in my exchange student's home I think I realized how different our lives really were. Everything there seemed so much smaller and neater. Almost classier you could say. It was really weird seeing what was in my exchange student, Elise's, closet. All of the clothes she had were darker and very sophisticated, where as literally everything in my suitcase was bright and fun. The French seemed to act much older at an age where in America we're still considered kids. Something about that helped me realize what I still see as more of an American lifestyle that I lived. Things there weren't so dramatically different that it seemed like I was on a whole other planet, thankfully. That would just be strange. I could still easily relate with all of the Parisians easily....well maybe not easily because of a bit of a language barrier. But overall I learned a lot from that experience and learned some of the qualities I possess that make me an American in my opinion.