In class this past week we were asked what the American Dream meant to us. Most of the students in class said, "Life, Liberty and Property/Pursuit of Happiness." All in all, this is the main structure of the American Dream. Although most of the class agreed that these three things make it up, our elaboration on them aren't all the same.
I feel that what is believed to be The American Dream, we have for the most part. We have freedom of speech/rights/religion. We are allowed to make our own choices. We can choose whether or not we will attend church, believe in God, a higher power, or anything at all. He have the right to speak what we feel and our opinion(which may cause yourself some trouble in some cases.)
We have the opportunity to achieve higher goals, make dreams come true, get the education we want and deserve, work our ways up to a good career. We all have the chance to do so, but it is all based on the choices we make. For example, if you chose to go out every night and party, staying out late, and not finish homework or study for those big test that we defiantly don’t look forward to, you are lowering your chances to get to that career you want.
The main thing we are all capable of having is happiness and it comes in many forms. Whether painting, singing, writing, being with family or being in peace and quite is what makes you happy, we all can have it. Love can create happiness for you whether by friends, family, a boyfriend/ girlfriend or a husband/wife. Even if it is the love you have with God, if that is what you believe in. Your career or placement in life(housing, schooling, culture, sexuality ect.) also causes happiness.
The American Dream can be explained in many ways, but this is the first written explanation of the American Dream is the eyes of James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America Written in 1931:
"That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be recognized by others to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
"Don't dwell on regrets or they will dwell on you."
I complete agree with the idea of if your lazy you clearly wont succeed and that everyone who does try has an equal chance at a decent living no matter who they are. Yet I find it hard to believe this is true, simply because for people with financial trouble its hard to achieve a higher education limiting them on what they are able to do in the future.
ReplyDelete