American Dream?

   The American Dream can and does mean different things to different people. The american dream to me is getting the job you want, being successful, having a nice car, having a nice house,and a family. To others that might live in a third world country it might mean just getting to america and getting a job. it all depends on where you are from.

    So i’m going to start this off with a story about a women named Gina Polley who is a successful attorney who lives in Baltimore Maryland. So this story starts off with a women who has 2 children living in a 2 bedroom apartment in Oil City Pennsylvania. She worked 2 jobs and went to school part time because she was determined to become a lawyer. Her goal was to get her family out of the struggle they were in and create a better life for her and her children. After 4 years of college and 3 years of law school she now had to try and find a job. This was one of the hardest parts of achieving her dream. When she applied for jobs she had to go to interviews with bosses. In these interviews they asked a couple of questions and said they will keep in touch. This women dedicated and sacrificed so much so that these bosses could say “we’ll keep in touch”. But all this did was motivate her to keep pushing. She didn’t find a job in 6 months. Most people at this point would probably just give up, but after 6 and a half months of struggling and waiting she finally got a job in Maryland and found a man that she loved, and now she has a 5 bedroom house in a gated community.

    Not only is financial barriers a problem but racial barriers could also be a problem in achieving your American dream. Segregation ended about 50 years ago which means everybody of al races and nationalities are supposed to be treated equally. But are we all treated equally? In the story in the first paragraph this woman is African American and she had a hard time finding a job being a lawyer. She is not the only person to go through discrimination while trying to find a job. If you have an American Dream and you are not getting the opportunities that someone else is who is a different race then it’s going to be way more difficult to achieve if you even achieve it.

    The thought of a person being free and doing what you want is the reason why immigrants come to America. The American dream is supposed to be a promise but really it’s disappointing. The government is worried about every other issue in America except discrimination or racism within corporations and businesses. If people start to believe that the American dream can never actually become a reality then what will America be known for? It’s freedom? Equality? Justice? I don’t know and I don’t want it to get to that point. When I get old enough to go to college and ready to start looking to apply for my career I don’t want to go through people being racist and people discriminating against me because of my skin color, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. People in power need to take a look at the big picture and ask themselves “what does the American dream mean?”