What Is the American Dream Essay

The American Dream is the ideal of equality of opportunity to achieve one's goals and have a better life. Many people have a dream, but not everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve it. Achieving the American Dream isn’t easy because it requires one to work hard and overcome obstacles that occur along the way. Everyone has a dream, but it’s not easily achieved for some. My American Dream is to have a stable job so I can prosper myself, buy my own home, build a family, and help out my parents, It might not be easy to achieve but with sacrifices, dedication, and faith everything is possible.

An obstacle that one might have to overcome to realize the American Dream can be moving to a new place and having to learn a new language, make new friends, or find a new job. For instance, my father, Rogelio Valencia, at 18 came to the U.S. from México. It was difficult for him to adapt to the lifestyle in the U.S. because there are many different cultures compared to the one he was used to. He also had to leave behind many friendships and family once he was here in the U.S. he realized this was a new start for him. I’m blessed for not having to go through this problem because I’ve been living in the same place for 13 years. Sometimes in life, it’s okay for one to make new changes and start new/all over again. Making a change offers one new opportunity.

A difficult challenge to overcome when attempting to realize the American Dream is learning a different language. My father came to the U.S., only knowing how to speak Spanish, it was difficult for him to communicate with other people. It became a problem, but he then, later on, learned to speak some English, it wasn’t fluent but he was able to communicate better. He learned in a job he got where everyone spoke English, he had to learn because he needed to communicate with his coworkers and clarify things when he wasn’t sure of something. I am fortunate to have grown up in a place where English is taught to kids at a young age and didn’t have to struggle with learning a new language at a later time like my father. There are obstacles in the way of achieving the American Dream, but in order for one to achieve it, one has to grow and overcome the difficult moments. The obstacles one once went through are what makes the person who they are at the time of achieving the American Dream.

An obstacle that many people face when coming to a new place to realize the American Dream is settling for less because one feels that one can’t achieve or do better. My godfather’s sister, for instance, is a single mother of three children, She only cleans about 2 houses a week and once she has enough money to get by the week she stops. She conforms herself to whatever she can make with the least houses possible as long as she can have enough for the week. I started working this year and I’ve come to realize that making $18/hr in the Bay Area isn’t enough because of how expensive it is. I don’t want to work for the rest of my life at a minimum-wage job and settle for that. I want to be able to have a well-paid job that I’m interested in. Being able to work at a job that allows me to cover my monthly expenses as well as save up for any emergency is important for one to do. It’s important to overcome those obstacles by trying and doing new and better things. If one doesn’t overcome the obstacles then one will just be stuck at the same point for the rest of their life. One should never settle for less but rather for more.

Poverty is an obstacle for many people to realize the American Dream. Many people don’t have money or might come from a low-income family where money becomes an issue and it doesn’t let them reach their goal(s). Erin and Sarah, in their article, “It takes a village to support the American Dream” say that “Kids raised at the bottom of the economic ladder who move out of the bottom as adults are also more financially secure than their childhood peers who remain stuck there.” What Erin and Sarah stated reminded me of middle school where I was friends with people that started to not like the lifestyle they were living. The people I was friends with took the easy route of selling drugs because they saw that money was coming to them very easily and now they were able to get what they wanted a different lifestyle. I understood how desperate they were to fulfill their needs, but that wasn’t the path I wish they had taken. I grew up having the same issues where I wanted so much at a young age but it wasn’t possible for my parents to give me everything I wished for. In my senior year, once I turned 18 I waited about 2 months after where I then applied to work for the district where I became a youth instructor. Once I was employed I was able to start to get the things I wanted, but in the “correct” way and not like my middle school friends. I am now 7 months of being employed and bought a brand new car from the dealership on my own because of the hard work put in and the efforts I've made. I’m currently a full-time employee and a full-time student and I want to be able to become a police officer, have my own house, be financially stable, and make it up the latter not just for me but for my parents who have made many sacrifices for me and my sister. Many people come from poor living backgrounds and find the easy way out by getting into gangs and drugs. It shouldn’t be that way, One should go to college or try to start a business and we know that attempting to start a business or go to college is expensive but we do live where funding is available to us. Getting grants, loans or scholarships can help us to succeed in our dreams(goals).

Family has been an obstacle for many individuals to pursue their American Dream. Not having one's family support or if the family doesn’t believe in one then it can be very difficult for one to achieve goals that an individual can have. Melissa Carver, in her article, “What to Do When Your Family Doesn’t Support Your Goals” says, “ There will be times when certain family members will not support your goals.” Sometimes we won’t get an answer we want from our family or have disagreements but it’s okay. For instance, when I first told my parents that my dream job was to be a police officer, I received negative feedback. My father told me, “No I don’t agree with what you want, do you want to get shot and die? Why don’t you become a doctor or something else.” Having my parents disagree with me and hearing my dad tell me negative things hurt me. Every time I would get asked, “What do you want to be when you’re older?” I answered the same thing always and my parents would tell me the same thing again as well. I wasn’t going to let my parents’ negative feedback stop me from doing what I wanted to do. Within time they realized that I truly wanted to be a police officer and they started to accept what I wanted. I am now in college and taking my AJ classes so I can get my degree and apply to become an officer. I have my family's support and I'm happy I do because they’ve come to accept that, that’s what I want and will make me happy. We all wish to have our family's support to achieve our goals, but it’s not always the way we wish. One shouldn’t let our family prevent us from succeeding, sometimes it’s best to be alone and achieve on our own.

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Another obstacle an individual can face while attempting to achieve the American Dream is education. My father had to stop going to school at a young age and from there on he never went back to school, he didn’t have the opportunity to continue his education. He started to work at a young age and once he came to the U.S. he had a difficult time getting a job since many jobs require people to have at least a High School diploma and social security. He worked with different companies but he felt that the pay and days were not enough. My father instead bought an old Volkswagen where he took out every part of the car and in his free time, he began to assemble the car back together. He then started to work on close family and friends cars and from then on he became a self-employed mechanic. I, on the other hand, am going to college to become a police officer and education is needed to become an officer. I’m blessed to be in a country where education is available for everyone and my parents have given me it because not everyone is lucky to have an education. My father was able to succeed in becoming a mechanic, not the easy way but rather the risky and difficult way. I on the other hand have the easier way around in being successful because I've been lucky enough to get an education that will lead me to my dream job. Accomplishing success without having an education can be difficult. We are fortunate to be living in a place where there are adult schools and continuation schools that help people obtain their diplomas. Once one has diplomas then one can achieve their goals.

Also trying to please someone else can be very difficult for someone to achieve their American Dream. There are many times where someone tries to convince one to do things their way and people go with what others say. For instance, my cousin never became a marine like she wanted to because her parents told her that they didn’t want her to go away from them. She followed what her parents told her and never did what she wanted to do, she worked taking care of elder people in her city. When I first told my parents that I wanted to be a police officer they told me that I shouldn’t be that because that was a very risky job and that as a girl being a doctor or something else best fitted me. I always told them that I wanted to be able to do a job I actually liked and not what they wanted. Within time they began to understand me and that it wasn’t their choice but rather mine because I’m the one that’s going to be living it. My parents learned from my uncles’ mistakes were they prohibited their daughter from doing what she wanted and now she's stuck doing something that she didn’t want her forever job to be. It’s important for one to note that regardless of what one does, one should always do things or something because one wants to do it and not because others tell you to.

Many people face the problem of having low self-esteem where they are negative about everything and that becomes an obstacle for them to achieve their American Dream. Growing up from elementary to high school I got bullied. I never understood why was it that they always picked at me if I never bothered anyone. From being bullied for many years my self-esteem and I would always think that I was never worth anything and that I didn’t have a purpose to be in this world. I was always negative and always thought that I wasn’t going to be capable of doing big things like others because I always got put down. No one should take in the negative things personally or as a putdown but rather as a motivation. Everyone should try and be positive because one needs to be able to love and better themselves.

Being undocumented and coming to a place where one wants to realize the American dream creates many obstacles for one to achieve. Miriam Jordan, in her article, “8 Million People Are Working Illegally in the U.S. Here’s Why That’s Unlikely to Change” says, “ Undocumented immigrants are overrepresented in low-skilled jobs such as farming, construction, and childcare...often, these are jobs their employers have trouble filling with American workers.” Undocumented people are very hard working and regardless of what job they have to do, they will give it their all to get it done. For example, I come from an immigrant family and my parents are undocumented. My parents came to the United States and faced many challenges in finding a job because they didn’t have social security that is the most important document for one when applying for a job. I am fortunate to have been born in the U.S. because I am documented. When I applied to my first job I realized that I didn’t have the problem that undocumented people face of not having a valid Social Security. Just because someone is undocumented, it doesn’t mean one won’t be able to succeed the same way as one who is documented. Being undocumented might be harder to succeed in certain goals but by staying positive and continuing to work hard for a goal, everything is possible.

Coming to a country where someone isn’t guaranteed a forever job or has an unfair job can be an issue it creates a challenge for one to achieve their American Dream. Paul Arthur Phillips, in his book, Women and Work: Inequality in the Canadian Labour Market says, “Employers pay men more than women for the same jobs because they have a preference for male workers” (56). Unfortunately, we live where gender pay inequality still exists, many employers believe that women don’t have the capacity to do the same job men can and it’s not true. Devin Hughes, in his article, “Gender Inequality Is Killing the American Dream” mentions that “According to the National Committee on Pay Equity men working full time receive the full $1 and women full-time workers from $1 only received 79¢.” Women are making less money than men even though they are doing the same job. Women are capable of doing the same job as men and sometimes women do the job better than men and get it done but women still are facing work discrimination just because of gender. I work for the Mount Pleasant Elementary School District and my boss treats everyone the same. Where I work we get equal treatment and equal pay. There might be obstacles that one needs to accept and allow them to defeat us. Life isn’t perfect and many times we will fail. In order to succeed one needs to be able to accept our failure and use it as a motivation to do better next time.

No matter what dreams we have, there will be obstacles throughout the process of achieving them but we need to get through them until we achieve them. Regardless of who one is or where one comes from there are always goals or a dream that one needs to set for oneself to be able to achieve it no matter how hard it is to get to it.