Part I: The dumb American, my desire for the American Dream
“Sigh. I’ve fallen for it, the American Dream. Sadly, I want it. I know that the American Dream does not exist, especially for people like me. Well, rather that in reality the American Dream is the romanticization of what your life could be like if you submit to capitalism. The American Dream has told us that if we work hard, starting from the bottom, that that hard work will carry us to the top. It also tells us that this is possible for everyone, and makes it seem like we all have the same capability to reach “success” at least in a monetary sense. A house you own, and a family you can financial support, and all that ends with you being able to retire from the job you worked at for 30+ years and finally reap the fruits if your labor. But, we know this is not true. People have worked for years at the same company, they have done the “right thing” and taken all the right steps to attain the American Dream, but yet, nothing. To no avail, they will never obtain the American Dream, because as stated in the name, it's a dream.
And yet, I still dare to dream. I want to own a house, to be financially stable*, to be married (ehh still debating this, yeah its a no rn), and to have the “family”—I curse myself for being this boring. Of course, if I had it, I would do it my way. I do not dream to have this Dream in its traditional sense, I don’t have expectations for the perfect nuclear family, in fact I want my family to be non-conventional. I know my “family” to be a mix of blood and non blood because that’s what I have grown up around and its so beautiful. I want the house, oh I want the house so bad. It’s really the main thing I dream about. I feel like owning a house is such a large part of the American Dream because it's the foundation. It's where all the aspects come together.
I know a conventional plan such as the one laid out by the American Dream won’t help me obtain this house I want. I just hope I can get it, or get close to it, without compromising too much of myself.
Just had to get this out.”
Part II: New Money Dreamin’
The new money/modern day version of the Dream is majoring in engineering, moving to San Francisco, working for Google, Microsoft, or a random start-up fresh out of college, and then marrying someone outside of your race and traveling all over the world whilst making a shit-ton of money. Gone are the days of oil, elbow grease, and suburbia yet the foundation of the Dream remains the same.
I wonder what the Dream looks like now that tech and influencing have taken over as the jobs to have to make the highest amount of income. Every time I think of the American Dream, I think of the characters of Mad Men (free to stream on IMDbTv), which is just the best depiction of people working towards the Dream (or already having obtained it) and the fallouts of their lives. I could write a whole essay on that, which I’m sure someone already has. Any who, I would love to imagine their lives being played out in a modern sense where they work for/own a tech company, or very well still work for an ad agency relying on influencers, etc…
In reality, I know very little about the day to day lives of the tech girlies and the STEM bros, but how far off can I be? (Don’t answer that). If I was smart I would major in engineering and be stressed out of my balls, but make a shit ton of in the end making it all worth it, but I don’t know, it’s just not for me.
Part III: What are you gonna do?
I’ve been really trying to focus on watering my own grass, more-so just being so focused on my own grass that I quote won’t even be able to tell if someone else’s is greener. Initially, I took that as a self-esteem/appearance thing, but now I realize it extends to career-wise as well.
Everyone around me is on a different path and posses a different kind of intelligence than me, but even still a lot of times I really feel like an idiot. But, watching the latest episode of Abbott Elementary (S1, E6), reminded me that we are all intelligent in different ways, and while I may make a lot of dumb decisions, what works for me is gonna work for me because I’m well adept to manage it and make it happen. It makes me pose the question, what does it mean to be me? On rare occasions I find myself being out of my body and being shocked at the fact that I’m me, shocked that my consciousness is the one in control of this body, like what the fuck who put me in charge?!
I really gotta make this happen for myself and that’s…really scary. What if the path I wanna take hasn’t been carved yet? I hate being a trailblazer, I’ve always been one to lead from within the crowd and never one to step out to uncharted territory. It feels like a tug-of-war between being ordinary on one side, and being “special”, outstanding, and having a wikipedia page, on the other side. This tracks because Hannah Montana was my favorite show. (No actually, let’s talk about it, Hannah Montana is THEE American Dream. The classic best of both worlds story type.) My biggest fear is being ordinary, but not because that’s what I was meant to be, but because I was too scared to try anything else.
With this era of the American Dream I think it is agreed that the way to achieve it is way less defined than it ever has been, which means that people are finding success in a variety of ways that may not work for others. I think it’s noble to want to find that structure within this era that is very much “???”, BUT we must also take into account that while many of us have debunked the Dream, we’ve (or whoever) actually just rebranded it.
Part IV: The End.
I remember learning about the American Dream in middle-school and learning about Levittowns, and suburbs, and people commuting to work. While I would have been L worded during those times, I weirdly romanticize the blissful ignorance of believing the Dream was possible and all the people that tried to achieve it and those who ended up having it. But then again, why should owning a home, being financially stable, owning a car, and having a career you're proud of be a dream. It should be a given.
I don’t know where I’m gonna end up or what my life is going to look like. I’m just going to try to do what’s best for me and prove to everyone and myself how regardless the turnout how great, happy, and fulfilling my life will be. Ordinary or Supercagifragilisticespialidocious!
(*Why are any of these things so radical of a want, lol.)
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