The first time I heard the Pledge of Allegiance I didn’t stand up. I didn’t put my hand across my heart and recite all 31 words of promise to our country with confidence. I was in kindergarten and had just moved to a new school, and at my previous school they didn’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Eventually, I learned the words and stood up along with every other student for the next 12 years of mandatory schooling. It became a routine, an everyday procedure to the point that it was almost robotic to stand up and say the Pledge with drowsiness in our voices every morning. We didn’t think about what we were reciting; we had forgotten the importance of the words and why we were saying them every day.

Just as I had forgotten the importance of the Pledge of Allegiance through the routine of reciting it every day, I have forgotten why I’m proud to be an American through the rhetoric of the presidential election.

Our country isn’t perfect, there is no one blind to the fact that something needs to change, but there are so many reasons to stand up every day and recite the Pledge of Allegiance with confidence, regardless of the election.

As I was watching someone on the news burn the American flag, I thought to myself, How could you? But then I also thought to myself, How am I so quick to judge someone without reasoning behind it? Why is it wrong to burn the American flag? What does it stand for?

The American flag stands for true love. Regardless of gender, religion or race you have the freedom to marry whomever you choose. With this freedom, you are already luckier than the 13 countries where some marriages are considered “punishable by death,” luckier than 60 percent of girls in the world who are forced to have an arranged marriage, and luckier than the men and woman who do not have the choice to divorce a spouse. The American flag stands for true love, it stands for the fact that we can legally feel the natural warmth without being shunned, ashamed or killed. How could you burn true love?

In the Revolutionary War, 4,435 lost their lives; 2,260 in the War of 1812; 1,000 during the Indian wars, 13,283 during the Mexican War; 498,332 during the Civil War; 2,446 during The Spanish-American War; 116,516 during War World I; 405,399 during War World II; 54,246 during the Korean War; 90,220 during the Vietnam War; 1,565 during the Persian Gulf War; and over 6,000 during the global war on terror. The American flag stands for more than 1.1 million lives lost while fighting for our country. How could you burn the lives of so many beautiful souls lost while fighting for our flag?

She walked through the trailer park every day. The bus driver and her classmates would come to a halt at her stop every morning and know they were picking up the “trailer park girl," a daughter of a waitress who only made it to 10th grade and a gas station attendant who only made it to 8th grade. When the bus dropped the trailer park girl off, she would run back to her 500 square feet of home in fright, as her peers screamed, “I’m going to beat the s**t of you, white trash trailer park girl.”

What they didn’t know was the trailer park girl would get married to an abusive man at 18-years-old to support herself. The trailer park girl would walk out on this man with $5 in her back pocket. The trailer park girl would work three jobs to put herself through Akron night school. The trailer park girl would defy her social class norms. The trailer park girl, my mother, would keep the American Dream alive. It stands for the ability to come from nothing and turn into something. How could you burn something that has kept so many human beings dreams alive?

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, thousands of Americans far and wide rushed to help rebuild the beautiful city. The same happened when beautiful children’s lives were taken at Sandy Hook Elementary; when the Dallas Police department lost officers keeping their city safe; when beautiful souls in Orlando were taken after a gunman entered a night club full of innocent people. It stands for a community that supports each other. How could you burn a community that can still come together as one in times of need?

Elie WieseI, a concentration camp survivor, became a U.S. citizen in 1963 and won the Noble Peace Prize in 1986. Audrey Hepburn was able to survive War World 2 and travel to America to become a model, actress and philanthropist who changed Hollywood. Albert Einstein became a U.S citizen in 1940, working for Princeton; he commented on his appreciation for American "meritocracy" and the opportunities people had for free thought. Stokely Carmichael was able to come from Port of Spain, Trinidad and become the founder of SNCC and help change the civil rights movement. America stands for a place where anyone is welcome; regardless of race, religion or gender. How could you burn the home of so many people that were able to immigrate to continue their passions and change the world?

Thomas Edison was able to patent the first light bulb. Bill Gates was able to create Microsoft. The local baker was able to open a small bakery that’s everyone’s favorite place to get a cupcake. F. Scott Fitzgerald was able to write "The Great Gatsby." The American flag stands for the ingenuity of Americans. How could you burn so many creative minds and the thousands of patents being issued in America?

The American flag stands for the freedom of speech that enabled me to write and to express how I feel and share it with others. How could you burn such blessing?

The American flag stands for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It stands for the fact that if you aren’t happy, you have the power to change. It stands for the freedom our country holds that other countries can only dream of having. How could we become so ungrateful? How could we forget so quickly? How could we become so robotic to something that holds so much? How could we burn something so beautiful?