The American dream….. the way it will stay.

The American dream, something our founding fathers fought for, lost their life for, and something Hollywood has made intangible. We learn about the ways that liberty and the “American dream” have been protected, preserved, and passed on. Yet outside of history class, we do not think about those sacrifices, those traditions, or how important those traditions were to be fought for. We go to the store and see the magazines on the shelves and wish we could be rich and famous. This is not what the founding fathers fought for. Our whole life Hollywood has skewed our image of the American dream, making us think that the life of the rich and famous is the ideal end to a normal life. I am here to say “that’s not right”.

                Hollywood, tsk tsk tsk. They make claims that anyone can be a star. They can take any one person and fabricate them into a celebrity, for better or worse. This “ease of fame” has helped skew the image of what we strive for in life. Instead of wanting to be a doctor or a firefighter, little kids want to be the next Kanye West, Rhianna, Ben Stiller, or some other movie star or pop artist. After all, they have so many to choose from. Not all of this idea is negative. For example, Slumdog Millionaire is a movie about a “lower class” individual who is given a chance on a game show and wins it all, the fame, the fortune, the babe. Well maybe not the babe, but you get the picture. This is a nice destiny, but it is not very practical.

                Every day we here of celebrities who are filthy, stinking rich. Every news cast, every news website, every MTV new series. With so much exposure to these stories, it’s no wonder we have lost sight of the meaning of the “American Dream.” For example, let’s look at a sample lifestyle of the “rich and famous”. Kanye West lives a life worthy of example. He has a lot of money, huge house, and I’m not sure about his love life. Kanye goes from recordings to “gigs” to singings, lather, rinse, repeat. He has hardly any time for personal enjoyment, no relaxation, all work, money, and fame.

                All throughout life we witness people struggling, people succeeding, or people being content financially. Unfortunately, this “statistic” is not a measure of success. You can work your whole life away and the only thing you had succeeded in doing was working your life away. No time for fun, excitement, or adventure. Granted, some people can get those benefits from working, but those kinds of people are few and far between. I would much rather work as needed and fill in the rest of my life with relaxation, fun, enjoyment. This to me is the true American dream. If you are doing what you enjoy doing, have a happy, healthy family, a little money for enjoyment, then you are right in the center of the American dream.

                You’ve grown up and you are out of college, you live on your own with a wife and kids, small house but big enough for the family. You make some money, not billions, but enough to stay alive and have fun every now and then. This, I believe, is the true meaning of the phrase “American Dream”. People need to realize that material things are not what define you or make up who you are as a person. The decisions you make, the times you had, memories, events, all define you. Just because you own a lot of things does not mean that you have lived a better live and have achieved the “American Dream”. A person who has struggled to get by, struggled to provide for the ones they love, that person could have found the “American Dream”. I guess what I am trying to say is the “American Dream” is intangible, and it varies between individuals. Every person has a different “American Dream”, just as everybody is biologically different. No one has the right to tell another person what their dream is, and Hollywood, in a sense, is doing this, whether purposely or not.

                The way you are brought up may also affect your vision of the “American Dream”. If you lived in the less desirable life style, your vision may be slightly more basic, say house and kids and a little money, as opposed to a person who was brought up in a high end family. Now that’s not to say that the high end family’s child would always go for the rich and famous lifestyle, but they would be closer to that realization. Of course, there are always special cases in this kind of topic, but generally this trend is followed.

Cars, A huge milestone in all our lives.

Since nineteen twelve cars have been manufactured for the public. Since that time, the car has slowly become a staple in the common American society. All throughout my life cars have been there. They have reigned supreme and were a source of joy, happiness, and belonging. The family car was a good place for a nap and an adventure. My dad’s car was the “work truck”. That poor car has gone through so much in my life time. It is the oldest of cars to me, being as it has been here from since I can remember to now. That car was what I had hoped to have been “my car” eventually. But the world had other plans. My dad lost his job the year he was going to buy himself a new car. My dad, being the way he is, instantly struck that thought from his mind and saved the money for something else. At the time I despised this decision. I was a car-less sophomore in high school with his temps wanting to drive his own car. Later down the road, I would come to realize the complexity of his decision. But for now, I wanted a car, badly. I would relentlessly harp at my dad to look into a car for me, and with the job I had I offered to pay for part of it. He would have none of it, and when I grew in age, he told me that it killed him to not be able to get a car for me. Now, I don’t think so much about not having a car, I think of the benefits that not having a car have brought me. For example, I have a lot of money in my savings account that I use for a lot of things I want, but not necessarily need. I ride my bike to school, staying healthy and active. The only things I’m missing from having a car is payment, repairs, and long distance freedom. I can get places with my bike, but not long distance travel.

                My dad had to get a job to get his own car and pay for his own insurance and stuff for the car, gas, repairs. He saw the car as a way to be responsible at the age he was. He was always the more responsible of his friends, so having a car would allow him to be responsible on a whole new level. He can run errands for his parents, helping them to get things done faster. He could get a better paying job that was too far away at the time. He could be the “Designated Driver” for his friends, keeping his friends safe. All of these reasons were reason enough for my dad to save everything he made to get this car. This was the start of my dad using the car to be responsible for everything. He makes sure the car is running properly himself, because what’s a family without a working car? This sparked another idea for responsibility boosting in his life. He saved again, with his long term job, and got the family another car. Coincidentally, the first car he owned had just gotten paid off. This was a proud moment for my dad. He had accomplished his dream of keeping his responsibility up while keeping the family mobile, if not making the family more mobile.

                My brother, who is seventeen, has shown no interest in getting his temps, let alone getting his own car. He is a high school junior who has no job and is an active member of the marching band, and he is not “conforming” to the stereotype of “I’m a teen, I need a car to be free and fit in.” He doesn’t really have a lot of time to be in the car driving, but neither do I. He knows that we are in a stressful spot financially and with him not having a job, he may see that as a no go for getting his temps and car. To him, it is not a necessity to life. He will get a car and his license as soon as he can comfortably. It may, quite possibly, be a hand me down from me, his older brother, just like some of the other things he has gotten over the years.

               

My mother absolutely despises the car at times. She will make all of her necessary trips conform to one day and then never leave the house driving again. She is the member of the family who has wrecked the car a few times. She has gone through a total of three cars in the eighteen years I’ve been alive, all of which before I can remember. Whenever I would drive her anywhere, she would be a nervous wreck and freak out about every object approaching the car. I understand that she cares, but that’s just a little much. She didn’t start driving until she was twenty-five, and she makes sure I know about that every time I ask to drive, let alone try to ask for a car. She tells me that she walked twelve blocks to school because there were no busses, her mom couldn’t drive, her dad wouldn’t drive her, and she couldn’t drive herself. By this time I’m usually asleep and I’m done trying, for now.

My best friend Megan, she got her car through the hand me downs of her big brother when she was seventeen. Ever since that moment, the car has been a necessity in her life for everything. She would ask if I wanted to go do something just so she could drive me somewhere, and then criticize me for not having my license or a car yet. I benefited from her “luck” because I got a ride to school every morning and a ride home when our schedules lined up. We also work at the same place, and she started getting more hours than I did due to her car, then I started getting rides to work because our boss scheduled together more often. So in many ways she wasn’t the only one who benefited from her “luck”.

Overall, everyone has been affected by cars whether we know it or not. You may not think about it much, but whether it is good, bad, or indifferent, it has changed you in some way. 

The way I see it

The way I see it, education is sometimes a dividing point between families. Some children feel that if they are “more educated” than their parents, they are “better” than their parents, and therefore creating distance between themselves and their parents. Others can be “more educated” than their parents and still be really close. I believe the difference between the previously mentioned situations is a multitude of things, including background and upbringing. Unfortunately, there are so many more attributes that influence this topic. Sometimes the decision is focused squarely on the student and the choices he or she has made in the past and the near future. Like Rodriguez, some friends of mine have become “more educated” than their parents and have separated from their parents due to that lone fact. I personally think this is wrong. Just because you seem “more educated” than your parents does not actually mean you are “more educated”. To me, there are a lot more factors that contribute to ones education. This is demonstrated by my use of quotations around the words more educated. Someone who knows a lot about Chemistry, through studying for a few years, is just as smart as someone who hasn’t gone to a secondary educational establishment at all, but has kept up with politics or the news. Now of course, someone who doesn’t do anything at all, like sit on the couch all day and watch cartoons is not that person, though they still have the potential to be educated. I digress. Not to offend anyone, but some people are born into better situations that produce a better desire to learn and succeed. Not to say that people of an undesirable upbringing can’t make something of them-selves, just that it would put them at a disadvantage compared to someone of an education friendly situation. In Rodriguez’s case, he grew up in an education friendly environment. Being the “scholarship boy” benefited his educational experience, even though his parents did not go to college. This is similar to friends of mine, but also exact opposite. Some friends of mine have had no desire to go to college, just like their parents, and I respect their decision. Everyone has to make the decision if they want to torture them-selves for upwards of eight or ten years more than they are required. Some make the choice to do the bare minimum. Who’s to say that they are not successful just because they did not go to college? They could be more successful than some people who go to college. It has to do with whether or not they have made the right choices and have the drive that they did not have for school.


Now for the other side of the spectrum, some parents push their children to go to college because they went to college them-selves, whether or not their child wants to go to college or not. This could be good or bad. If the child wants to go, then they will have the positive reinforcement of their parents, leading to a possibly easier educational experience and the strengthening of the bond between the child and their parents. Even in this seemingly all-positive situation there are negatives. Sure the child will have the positive reinforcement for the furthering of their education, but what if the child doesn’t compare to their parents? The child would have the parents always on their case about doing better, even if the child is trying his or her very best already. This could lead to the steady decline of the student’s education. On the other hand, if the child does not want to go to college, this could lead to the eventual down fall of the child’s educational experience, and the distancing of the child from the parents them-selves. Just as before, there are two sides to this story. Maybe the child’s parents are very understanding and loose about regulations for their kids. The child’s parents have a lot of give in their budget to set the child up for life even with the child not going to college. To some, this does not seem fair. I see it as a learning experience for the student. After the child leaves their parents, with all the parents gave them to be “set” for life, the child will get to learn how everything works in real life. This “reality check” is a conveniently placed learning tool. Of course, this does not happen to everyone and is not focused solely on the students with no college experience. Unfortunately in the real world, there are a lot of extra circumstances and influences that affect every day life, as I said at the beginning. These extra circumstances and influences are what cause this topic to have the special cases that have none of these facts effect them.

We as humans always think that we can control others, and if they don’t follow the way we want them to, then we shun them. To me, this idea is absurd. The whole educational experience is different for every individual. Some people learn easier than others, some learn in different ways. Most benefit from further education, while others think it is pointless. All of these factors contribute to the fact that no-one is exactly identical to someone else. So if we aren’t the same, then people shouldn’t think they can control other people’s experiences in the educational system. Rodriguez surely didn’t listen to what others had to say, in regards to negative comments. I am sure being an immigrant student in his day in age was a very unwelcome fact along with the fact that college wasn’t a “popular” thing at that time, at least compared to now. Back then, you only went to college to become researchers and scientists (this is a very basic, bland view of why people went to college back then. Bear with me.) Now a day’s, people go to college for a lot more than the “smart people” jobs. In fact, it has become common place amongst the people.