Arden Manson Honors the American Flag

On January 12, Arden Manson (Class of 2025), became the 2018 Patriot’s Pen Virginia State Champion! As one of the top 3 finalists out of 1,500 submissions, Arden read her essay "Why I Honor the American Flag," to a packed audience at the Veterans for Foreign Wars Winter Conference in Portsmouth, VA and received a standing ovation.

Why I Honor the American Flag

By: Arden Manson

I honor the American flag because it helped me find my true potential. You don’t have to be born in the U.S. to love the flag.  You don’t have to look American or have an American background.  You have to treat others equally and be treated equally.  It matters that you stay truthful to yourself through any battle in your life.  At Ft. McHenry, the flag stood through the War of 1812, clinging to the little piece of hope that lingered on through all the bloodshed and tears.  I, too, have stood true to myself through conflict and tears.  On February 5, 2008, I was adopted from a country many American soldiers gave their lives to protect. I officially became a US citizen, but I didn’t always feel like one.  When I first started school, I felt uncomfortable saying the Pledge of Allegiance, staring up at the flag, because kids always asked me questions about my parents, my adoption, and where I was from.  It was as though they thought I was an alien.  As I got older, I started caring less and less about what other kids thought.  I kept saying to myself, “Let them look, let them think what they want, but this country is where I know who I am.”  After that realization, I carried on through each day no matter what words or questions were thrown at me. The flag made me feel included, not unworthy. Now, I take pride in my American ancestry.  My great-great-great grandfather fought at the Battles of Concord and Bunker Hill.  The Stars and Stripes were there with him, the thirteen stripes symbolizing the original colonies, including my family’s own ancestral state of Massachusetts.  The red on the flag symbolizes valor, the courage of those who fought there, and my own courage in asserting myself here, too.  The white stripes on the flag symbolize the purity of the motives for which my ancestors fought, and it also symbolizes the original goodness of every American citizen.  The blue on the flag symbolizes the justice of their cause and their perseverance in fighting for it, and it also symbolizes my own perseverance to serve my country in the best possible way I can.