People often tell me that I’m the most patriotic person they’ve ever met. When they tell me that, I always reply with an excited “thank you” and am often met with a quizzical look that begs the question, “why are you thanking me?” Well, if you were to tell me that you think my hair looks nice or you like my outfit, I would reply with a thank you for the compliment. So why is this any different?

Being patriotic isn’t just about wearing red, white and blue. It isn’t just doing “American” things like watching and playing baseball, having barbecues and eating fast food like it’s going out of style. It’s much more than that.

Being patriotic is having a deep love for my country. It’s having a deep respect for my country, my government and those who have forged this country from the ground up. It’s being a true advocate for those who protect my country. I’m a patriot – I love my country and I would die for it. When did that become a bad thing?

People who are of the age to be considered millennials have grown up to believe that America isn’t the great country that it is. They take for granted their freedoms and how long it has taken to be afforded them. They don’t realize that being an American is such a blessing.

There are many reasons why you should be proud to be an American, but here are some of my favorites.

Everyone is different, and that’s okay.

America is the melting pot of the world. We have people from every religion and every ethnicity. We have lesbians and gays. We have Republicans and Democrats. But no matter how you identify, it’s okay. You’re free to be who you want and not have that freedom infringed upon.

The American Dream is real.

Not long ago, I was just a teenager from a poor family in a small town. One choice and a lot of hard work brought me to where I am today as a student at an Ivy League presented with the chance to make a real difference in the world and provide stability for my family. This is the same general story line for so many Americans. People from all over the world make the brave choice to come to this amazing country because it affords them opportunities they would never receive in their homeland. In America, one day you can be stepping off a boat or a plane into a new country and the next you can be starting a business. Everyone, regardless of race, sex, nationality, or personal preference is afforded the chance to make something of themselves.

We care for the world.

We really are the world’s caregiver. We involve ourselves in affairs that we really don’t need to, simply to make the world a better place. For example, after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were over, we didn’t need to stay. Instead, we started a humanitarian effort to rebuild their country with them. With recent disasters such as terror attacks in Paris, Brussels, and now Turkey, and the downing of the EgyptAir flight, even when no American was involved, we offered all the help we could. The compassion our country shows makes me proud to say I live here.

But at the same time, we care for our own first.

Americans come together over tragedies that effect the homeland. The best example is September 11 and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In those moments, nothing else mattered. Whether you were a Republican or Democrat, black or white, Muslim or Christian, those identities didn’t matter. The only identity that mattered was that you were an American. The same is true for recent events as well, such as the Orlando massacre. In those moments, we are able to set aside our differences and provide the care that our fellow Americans need.

We make progress every day.

Obviously no country is perfect, not even somewhere as great as America. It’s easy to say that one’s skin color determines their opportunities and that gays are still judged for their sexual orientation. But when you only choose to look at this, you are choosing to avoid the whole picture. Just a few years ago, gays were not allowed to marry and were often denied the opportunity to go certain places and work at certain establishments. Not that long ago, African Americans were denied any equality. Today everyone has the freedom to be themselves and pursue what they want. You can say what you want, marry who you want, and believe what you want. We live in a country where our voices truly do matter. As I write this, news is breaking that the military has lifted its ban on transgender people serving. This is progress. This is what America is all about.

Millennials have grown up in a country where they are afforded every freedom that people in other countries could only dream of, but truly take that for granted. I often hear people complain about the government infringing on our rights, and here’s what I have to say to those people: take a minute and look at the world around you. There are countries where you are jailed or killed for being gay, not allowed to do anything if you’re a woman, and are not allowed many of the basic freedoms we have in America, such as freedom of speech. There’s nothing that’s so bad about America that isn’t worse in other countries.

If you are an American citizen, you are blessed. You have opportunities that most in the world don’t have. That’s something to be proud of. That’s why I’ll take being called patriotic as a compliment any day.