This is a piece I wrote for English, and I thought I'd share it with all of you, whoever you are.
On this particular Saturday, I decided to drag myself out of bed just a bit earlier than normal so that we can get going on time. I made breakfast and packed the ski stuff before showering and finally sitting down for my first relaxing cup of coffee in over a month.
We’re heading up to the slopes for the day, and I want to make sure we get there in time for a full day of skiing. There’s nothing worse than getting to four and wishing we could keep going. Unfortunately, we live about two hours away. Not exactly ideal right now, but we couldn’t beat the quick hop, skip and a jump away from the grocery store and my sister. Not to mention the literal walk to my work and the school.
I am starting to hear my kids stir upstairs and my five-year-old twins come bounding down the stairs, effectively waking the whole house except my youngest, who is two and can sleep through literally anything. Alright, I think to myself. It’s time to get going. My husband is on travel this week with our non-profit so it’s up to me to make sure everything is in order. Thankfully, the kids are so excited and ready to go this morning! A veil of snow fell throughout the night, leaving a white wonderland behind at our house. The mountain’s going to have even more snow. This, I think. Is what life is all about.
This snapshot of my perfect future reveals more about my dreams and goals than any cliche American dream ever could. The “American Dream” that has informally existed for over a century is such an abstract and generalized idea that it cannot possibly apply to the diverse makeup of the current United States. According to Webster, living the “American Dream” entails working hard and becoming successful by having a good job, a nice house, two children, and, lots of money. But most importantly, the American Dream rests on the tenant that Americans will have the opportunities to lead a fulfilling life. We are not stovepiped from an early age into a fixed career, determined by our parents or our grades in school or even us.
Personally, my “American Dream” doesn’t center around a desire for great monetary wealth, or having an especially nice house. Rich people have their own set of problems with fulfillment and greed, and I definitely don’t possess a burning desire to put those burdens upon myself or the people I love. A nice house comes with challenges, as well. If the house is too big, then upkeep and cleaning is a significant amount of work. But if I hire someone to clean or maintain the house, then I’ll spoil myself and my children. While I don’t want my children to know hunger or pain, I also don’t want them to have everything handed to them on a golden platter. Creating a strong work ethic rather than a sense of entitlement will give them more of an idea of how to be successful and find fulfillment in their lives than any check, no matter how large, that I could ever write them.
Instead, my dream centers around building a life dedicated to aiding humanitarian causes that improve broken aspects of society and looking for personal success beyond the paycheck and fulfillment in experiences and relationships in my life. However, I do acknowledge that such a life is impossible without a certain degree of financial security. Sometimes it is necessary to hold a mundane job for the money. Above all else, I need to ensure that in chasing my dreams, I do not become reckless and irresponsible because the only thing irresponsibility would achieve is placing pressure on the relationships that I mentioned earlier are so important to me.
Placing important people in my life like my family, my future husband and kids, and my friends, at the center of my dream, allows me to divert my focus from myself and evaluate what I really want from life. Even though I would like to travel, my adventures would be meaningless if I had no one to share them with. The same principle is true for my occupation. When looking towards a career in politics, it would be easy to simply focus on myself and my personal successes, but I am certain that my personal gains would be worthless if they did not contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. Politics is the perfect medium to both serve and abuse humankind, and while abuse would bring me fleeting gains, ultimately it would leave me empty and render my life meaningless. At the end of the day, I guess my dream is to lead a life that others can look at, and say, I want to be like her. And not just because I’m rich or famous, but because they genuinely enjoy being around me.
