{"id":62730,"date":"2026-07-05T03:21:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T07:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/?p=62730"},"modified":"2026-07-05T03:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T07:21:39","slug":"matt-usa-250","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/?p=62730","title":{"rendered":"Matt: USA 250"},"content":{"rendered":"

This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant\u2019s heart it is a belief that future is almost always better. It may not be perfect and it is certainly not equal, but it still is one of a kind \u2014 the only place where an absolute stranger with a funny name and a funny accent with no friends or contacts can show up, work hard and actually get to do what he was destined to do. [\u2026]\n

In most places in the world, outsiders like me don\u2019t have that chance. That simple truth is what makes America so special. A chance \u2013 to be somebody even if you are nobody. America is a state of mind and I have opted-in!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I feel lucky to have been born here, and if I hadn\u2019t been, I think I would have gotten here as fast as I could. I\u2019m grateful to the public schools that educated me, the teachers who pushed me, the internet that freed my mind, and the culture of risk and innovation in technology that gave a 21-year-old dropout kid a million dollars to try and build a company around (but not replacing) an Open Source project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This auspicious 250th Independence Day, I find myself thinking of what Om wrote in iAMerican when he became a US citizen in 2013. On a globe, America is a landmass, a country. In an immigrant\u2019s heart it is a belief … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bowlingquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}