250 stories. 250 years. One nation, still becoming.
To mark America's 250th anniversary, Story of US is collecting 250 personal stories from individuals across the country. Each one reflects a family's journey, an identity, and what belonging in America has meant. Together they form a living portrait of the nation at its milestone moment.
No nation begins as a certainty.
It begins as a bet.
Two hundred fifty years ago, a small group of people bet that ordinary citizens could govern themselves better than any king. It was not a safe bet. It is still not finished. But the bet held, and word of it traveled: that where you start does not have to determine where you end. That belonging could be built, not just inherited.
31 of 250 collected so far, from 5 states. The portrait is just beginning.
Every dot is a person.
Stories land on the map where their tellers live, city by city, state by state. Follow a dot far enough and it becomes a family, a kitchen, a language, a life.
Not one story told 250 times.
250 different stories that happen to share an address. A few of them, first.
“If people remember anything from my story, I'd want it to be this: the label the world assigns you — American, Chinese, refugee, citizen, suspect — was never the whole truth of ...”
Han Xiu
“If there's a single thing I'd want to carry forward from everything I made — the poems, the paintings, the patchwork philosophy stitched through decades of work — it's this: app...”
Yan Li
“Law touches every stage of life — birth, aging, illness, death. There's no opting out of that reality, only a choice between facing it prepared or facing it blind. Everything I ...”
Dr. Chang C. Chen
“If there's a single thread running underneath the novels, the research, and the teaching I'm working toward, it's this: cultural identity for diaspora Chinese Americans is rarel...”
Rebecca F. Kuang
“If there's a single thread running through all of it, it's this: I never let anyone else's judgment of me become my judgment of myself. Whatever they called me — black five cate...”
Lu Hong
Your story belongs here.
The form takes 10 to 15 minutes. There are no wrong answers, and our team follows up before anything goes live.