What is the American Dream?
The year 2015… you ask this question to anyone in America and you may get varying answers depending on the age group and cultural background.
Here’s the Wikipedia definition: “The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.”
I recall in 2004 a mortgage broker told me the American Dream was to own your own home.
Somehow I missed the ‘memo’… the ownership of land, of property. You know? The memo where your parents talk to you about the financial freedom that you can experience by owning your own home. The kind of freedom that could afford you the chance to be self-sufficient economically, to build, accrue and pass on wealth. After all, one of the principal promises of America was the possibility of average people being able to own land, and all that comes with ownership.
Despite the fact that my dad was an American citizen he longed and dreamed of his native land – the island of Dominican Republic. I’m a first generation American… perhaps the reason I missed the memo was in part because of our cultural background – the era in which my parents were raised, women were provided for by the husband. My father worked real hard in America to build his dream home in his beloved island. When my father finally built his home, I think in the back of his mind he thought we would all go back and live happily ever after – unfortunately we – his three children born in America, raised in America were in fact already ‘home’.
I am living in a deja-vu. My husband -George- like my dad is from another country. He is from what I call the ‘old world’- Europe, more precisely Czhech Republic. His history is laced with the rich tales of kings and queens, of castles and battles – rooted with stories shared from one generation to another. He tells me it is not unusual for people to live in the homes of their forefathers, these homes become heirlooms from generations past and creates a sense of deep rooted family history.
My husband, like my parents misses his ‘home’.
I think that this search for ‘home’ has been the reason why we moved to a small town. This move which took place at the peak of the financial recession has also been the reason for our biggest struggle. Victims of the recession and now at age 50, I am living the American Nightmare. Starting over.
As a first generation American… the sense of ‘deep rooted’ family history is what I am missing. I am home… and I want to be self-sufficient economically, I want to build, accrue and pass on wealth for my posterity.
I think that there are many Americans that don’t value their deep rooted history and don’t value the struggles of their forefathers.
I have learned a valuable lesson from this experience: Happiness is something we choose with our own attitude and gratitude.
I appreciate what I already have to add comfort to my life.
We have the choice to change our life if we want. With hard work and a dream anything is possible. Obstacles can always be overcome. We learn from them and keep moving forward.
I believe that there is great value and importance in ‘deep rooted’ history that we create when we come together as ‘family’.
