"Breathing dreams like air..."

**this is a warning to all my IB peeps, do your blogs on google docs and DO NOT type directly into blogger or you will end up with a beautiful blog disappearing**

     The American Dream has been one of the most constant themes of American culture since American independence. Everyone's American Dream is centered around the idea of success and a hope for a brighter future. However, it varies hugely in people of different ages, regions, races, and just general experiences. The modern artist Khalid demonstrated this in his song "American Teen" when he says, 'Cause this is our year So wake me up in the Spring While I'm high off my American dream We don't always say what we mean It's the lie of an American teen." Though this he demonstrates his feelings that the American dream is a fallacy and has created a falseness to his generation. This contrasts Gatsby's interpretation of the American Dream, which he perceives as a driving force that gives him hope. This is shown when Nick says, "it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again" (Fitzgerald 2). This demonstrates Gatsby's undying faith in a better future. As for me, I like to think I fall somewhere more in the middle in my definition. I like to believe the American Dream is taking what you have and turning it into something grand and bigger than yourself, something you can be proud of. 

     Please notice my definition is not involving wealth because I do believe you can live the American Dream with any amount of money, as long as you feel you can live comfortably and in good company. However, it is naive to believe that you can be totally broke and struggling to survive and feel that you are living the American Dream. Wealth, monetary or otherwise, is going to be different for every person and more often than not, it will be having more of something than they do. The middle class suburban person may consider someone wealthy when they have a million dollar home in California, while the student working two jobs might consider someone with no debt as wealthy. 

     I believe the American attitude towards the impoverished has become more and more hateful in recent years. With the recent push to rid of government programs that extend services such as health care to those in need, more and more struggling individuals are being left in the dust. From my perspective, it seems most Americans believe the rich as the hard-working and independent ones and that those living in poverty are lazy and full of excuses. While there are people who fit those descriptions, there are also people who live immaculately without ever having and job and those who work three jobs and still need food stamps. I am a big believer in circumstance and these generalized stereotypes can be poisonous because they evoke such emotional responses across the board. My belief is based around equity rather than equality, giving everyone the same opportunities to be successful no matter the circumstance and see who is truly the most passionate, dedicated, and hard-working. This also comes into play in recognizing my own privileges, allowing me to not only have empathy and understanding, but to remind myself to take every possible opportunity to even the playing field, because in my experience it has been those who struggled the hardest and most embody my definition of the American Dream.