Luke Young won third place in the America 250 youth essay contest (provided by the Young family)
Luke Young won third place in the high school category for the Stars and Stripes America 250 youth essay contest. Luke is a tenth grade student at DoWEA’s Osan Middle High School at Osan Air Base in South Korea.
The essay prompt was: “How has being part of a military (or military-affiliated) family shaped how you think about America?”
Being part of a military family my entire life has changed how I view America, not only as a country, but also as a responsibility.
Growing up, America wasn’t just the place where we came from; it became something my family carried everywhere we went. While other American families had local traditions, childhood friends, and familiar streets, I had become accustomed to goodbyes to friends, to packing up my things, and to restarting all over again. I learned early that America is also represented by unexpected trips, preparing uniforms at night, and goodbyes at airports that never hurt any less, no matter how many times I go through them. This makes my understanding of America complex, personal, and earned.
Living overseas has shown me that America is always a subject of interest. I have moved a total of 10 times to multiple foreign countries, and whether people were curious about America, admired it, or questioned it, I realized that my family and I represented something a million times bigger than ourselves. This realization changed the way I acted and thought. America isn’t just the country that sends us around the world every two years; it’s a country whose values are demonstrated around the world by respect, accountability, and discipline.
Being a part of a military family also taught me that this responsibility came with drawbacks. It brought delayed holidays, missed birthdays, and more stress than my parents cared to talk about. But these sacrifices helped me understand that freedom isn’t free in the symbolic sense - it costs real people real energy and time. This understanding showed me that we shouldn’t take our American freedoms for granted, and while we can enjoy them, we should also see them as something we should live up to.
On December 17, 2023, my world split in two; my dad left for a deployment to Qatar, the only long-term deployment he had ever taken in my lifetime. My family and I were devastated. I remember receiving the news in the courtyard of a Hilton hotel. My mother was crying as my siblings and I tried to grasp the concept of my father leaving for 6 months. It was especially hard for me; it made me look at America in an angry way. Why would they take my father away from his family? Was this what America is about? I kept this mindset until my father sat down before he left and talked to me; he explained the importance of why he was going away and told me, since I was the oldest, that I was going to be the man of the house. The conversation stayed with me; it helped show me that America isn’t about tearing families apart, it’s about sacrifice for freedom for those at home. It’s about working, even when you and your family are scared, for a better future; a better future for all Americans.
It’s a big world, so it isn’t surprising that stories like mine may never end. What I find beautiful is that they don’t have to. Every person has a different and unique story with America, and that’s what makes them meaningful. Because of my military family, I don’t see America as just a country; I see it as a land of opportunity for which I continue to live, sacrifice, and uphold.
Luke Young attends Osan Middle High School (Provided by the Young family)
