The Stars and Stripes America 250 Essay Contest Winner for the High School category goes to Lilla Morris, stationed at Vicenza, Italy. (designed by Stripes Staff | photo provided by Lilla Morris)
First place winner in the high school category of the Stars and Stripes America 250 youth essay contest is Lilla Morris. She is a senior at DoWEA’s Vicenza High School in USAG Italy.
The essay prompt was: “How has being part of a military (or military-affiliated) family shaped how you think about America?”
I am an anomaly. I am an American who has never lived in America. While most define their country by geography, my America has never been a place, but an identity I am forced to hold, a liminal space, where I cross worlds simply by scanning a little plastic ID card at a gate. Growing up on a military installation in Italy, I have lived in a state of unique irony. We are told to pledge allegiance to a flag we have never truly lived under and to represent a country that doesn’t recognize me. Inside the concrete walls of the base, I see U.S. flags, eat American food, and speak English; yet, I know that I am not in the States. I am told to carry the American identity as if it’s a travel-sized culture.
When I first arrived in Italy, I remember looking at new houses, filled with excitement at the prospect of discovering somewhere new. Standing outside of the school I was going to be attending, I remember asking, “How long are we going to be here?” My mom jokingly said, “Until you graduate high school.” I was going into first grade then. At six, the idea of staying anywhere until graduation felt impossible, but now, standing at the end of that journey, I see how much the move shaped my life as I am graduating from that very same school.
In a typical American town, communities are often stationary. In my America, “PCS season” shuffled the board like a playlist on Spotify, changing the people I was exposed to every year. Most students are always coming and going, while I remain a constant presence.
Being the constant allowed me to view America through a fusion of perspectives. My classmates came from all over the world: Asia, the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Each person brought their own share of experiences and way of seeing the world. Because I knew how daunting it felt to be new, I reluctantly accepted the role of a greeter, a new friend, a tour guide, and a recommender of delicious food. This role can take on many forms; sometimes it means walking newcomers to their classes, helping them navigate the maze that is their new school, and sitting with them at lunch when they haven’t found a group of friends yet.
These moments, though they feel small, are truly what help someone feel at home in a new place. These experiences have fundamentally changed how I think about America. I used to feel like an outsider in my own culture because I didn”t have a “hometown,” but watching new students flourish taught me that America is less about the “where” and more about the “who”.
By serving as a stable surface for those who were passing through, I realized that my America didn’t need to be a location on the map to be genuine. I have become friends with many of the kids who have moved here, and even when they eventually move to a new school, and the friendship fades, the impact stays. Knowing that they were able to feel stable within this liminal space makes me feel accomplished because it reminds me of when I first moved. What started as a nervous question on my first day in Italy has grown into a definition of citizenship based on service rather than location. I may be an American who has never truly met America, but I have found that my citizenship is not defined by a place, rather the community that I’ve become a constant in.
Lilla Morris attends Vicenza High School at USAG Italy. (provided by Lilla Morris)
