WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CONSERVATIVE?

If being a conservative means having no borders, and allowing terrorists to infiltrate the USA, I don’t want to be one. If being a conservative means letting others bully and verbally trash you while you remain silent, I’m not in. If being conservative means being politically correct , then I don’t want to be conservative. If being conservative means giving up your faith so someone else’s faith can dominate you, I don’t want to be a conservative.
If being a conservative is allowing your government to change things like a slow boiling frog – I am seeing the results of that.  I am not for it.
The dictionary defines political conservatism as a right-of-center political philosophy based on a tendency to support gradual rather than abrupt change and to preserve the status quo.
How can you allow gradual change and still preserve the status quo?
Will someone define to me what being conservative really means. I need that clarified. I just may not be for it.
What is wrong with just being an American who wants what is right and just?
Dianne Marshall