What is an American?

I think that it is hard to define what it truly means to be an American.  After all, our country was made up of immigrants, and the majority of our citizens today are immigrants from other countries.  I think that when we define our selves or say where we are from, we are hesitant to say we are from America, because it is not truly were we originated.  We may feel obligated to say we are from a different portion of the world.  I think that it is very interesting to see how people will actually say they are from other regions of the world, or are a different nationality after they had lived in the U.S. all of their life.  I think people say they are a different nationality because that is the saying or term used to describe the U.S.  People call America a giant melting pot that contains all different types of races and nationalities.  To back that saying up, people describe themselves as some other nationality in order to support this important saying.  However I think that people should start to call themselves Americans, when asked who are they.  I think it is fair to give our country credit for what it has done.  America is its own nation, with a successful past, and people should respect that.  We have also been a nation for more than two hundred years now, so there have been many different generations of people to live in the United States of America.