Every day I wake up, make a good strong cup of coffee and take in the latest events further dividing our nation. And with each new day and each new revelation, I can’t help but think we’ve forgotten what it means to be American. We need to remember who we are and the things that bind us together instead of focusing on the petty things that divide us.

The time has come for us all to stop and ask ourselves, “What does it mean to be an American?”

I can tell you it has nothing to do with politics. Or political parties. It has everything to do with the opportunities and advantages that come with being a citizen of this great country.

Let me tell you a little bit about my “Made in America” story.  It’s a classic “bootstraps” tale shared by so many of us whose ancestors came here to build a better life. Because unless you’re Native or African American, this is the common thread that binds us all.

I am the youngest of seven children. When I was 5, my father opened a farm stand in Old Bridge. My siblings and I didn’t get to spend summers like other kids our age. We were up before sunrise to pick up produce from the local farms and haul it back to our stand where we’d work 12 hours a day serving customers. For a little kid, hefting 50-pound sacks of potatoes seven days a week in the brutally hot summer sun was extremely hard work.

As I got a little older, customers hated it when I served them because I was really good at math. I could calculate down to the ounce what the cost of those potatoes would be. By then I was a seasoned, hard-working 8-year-old who understood we deserved every penny for our efforts.

Fifteen years and a college degree in accounting and business from Middlesex County College later, I was earning $45 an hour for being good at math. And, I had an incredible work ethic.

Was it hard to be poor? You betcha. But the upside of working the farm stand was I got one hell of an education in running a business and being an entrepreneur.

I married my high school sweetheart – Ray, who worked as a metal framing carpenter. Our family grew with the births of our two sons. But Ray’s work wasn’t always steady. It was time to chart our own destiny. What started as a hundred-dollar investment in flyers and business cards became a thriving home-based construction business.

For more than 30 years, we were helping to build New Jersey from the ground up, as well as a solid foundation for our family.

But in 2013, life became almost unbearable. In the span of three years, I lost my brother, both my parents and the love of my life, my husband Ray. I almost lost the business we had built, too.

One day after his funeral, I put my boots back on and headed back to the job site. If I hadn’t, the contract – the income we so desperately needed – would have died too.

Today, I am the sole owner of Blue Diamond Construction, a commercial carpentry contractor specializing in metal framing in New Jersey. We frame large commercial buildings that the average person uses every day.

I am a woman making it in a man’s world – construction. My early childhood “training” prepared me for real life where I would have to work hard and fight to keep what was mine.

But I firmly believe that all of this was and is possible because I am an American. We live in a country where we are free to dream, to control our own futures, to work hard for our own success, to write our own narratives.

And we should honor that each and every day.

So in this presidential election season, I want to celebrate being an American. Not a Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Independent. Because that’s not patriotism. That’s tribalism. Patriotism is loving this country and working to make it better for everyone – all citizens. To make sure opportunities are there for all of us.

That’s my brand – patriotism. And I’m going to celebrate it this year, next year and as long as I live.

Pat Miller is the owner of Blue Diamond Construction in Jackson Township.