America is the single greatest nation in the world, full of stories of great success. I look at my own life and often think to myself, “What if I had been born in a land where my future was decided for me?” I am grateful that God saw it fit to put me in this magnificent land of opportunity, for I would not be where I am today if he hadn’t.

“I don’t believe in the greatness of America because I read it in a book, but because I’ve seen it with my eyes,” said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). He is a true story of American exceptional-ism, as he is the son of Cuban exiles and now is a prominent figure in the conservative movement.

When I look at stories like Sen. Rubio’s, my story pales in comparison. However, the fact is, we all have a great story about opportunities that this great country has afforded us. We should all be thankful that we are in the single greatest nation of mankind.

However, we have seen declines in America as of late. We have seen our futures mortgaged due to the entitlement mentality that is crippling America. This mentality will leave our future generations worse off than our parents left us. Furthermore, it will leave the next generation worse off than any other generation has been left before.

In America, we are at a crossroads. We have to make the choice of whether or not we will continue to mortgage the future or whether we will begin to make the cuts necessary to save it. According to the U.S. National Debt Clock, in order to pay our debt off, every American citizen would have to pay $46,023.25, and it’s more since I’ve written this. This is an alarming statistic that we should keep in mind when we decide who to vote for in 2012. Will we continue to spend ourselves into oblivion, or will we begin to restore the ideals of our founders of small, but effective, government?

In America, we need to preserve freedom for all generations and fight for it rabidly. As one of my favorite presidents, Ronald Reagan, famously said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

This is why I’ve written all year. I would like to give a special thanks to everyone that has read and followed my writing, as well as to The Flor-Ala for giving me the opportunity. This has truly been a great opportunity, for which I am very appreciative. God bless you all, and God bless America!