What Makes America a Singular Place on Earth

Through my travels, I got to see what the world appreciates about American values. It made me love this country even more.
What Makes America a Singular Place on Earth
A painting of the Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in Williamsburg, Va., made in 1893. The essay’s author felt inspired while visiting the church one Christmas. Public Domain
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I have been fortunate enough in my lifetime to have seen much of the world. When I was a child, my father told me stories of wonderful places, so naturally, I grew up and went to those places. I met America by traveling her back roads and rolling hills, hearing of the heroic people who carved a country out of the wilderness and stretched it from sea to sea.

In the Northeast, we listened to stories of lobstermen. In the West, we tasted vegetables just off the vines. We stood in awe of the beauty of national parks, the splendor of Niagara Falls, the power of the Mississippi River. It seemed that the geography of the entire world was represented on this continent, from snowy ridges to deadly deserts, from European climes to swampy lands simmering in the heat. America had a piece of every place on Earth.

Maria D. Baisier
Maria D. Baisier
Author