Personal Narrative: Achieving The American Dream

The American dream is something that everyone should believe in, I know I do. Throughout my whole entire life I have wanted to be successful. I believe in myself and know that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. The American dream says that everyone should be treated equal. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Everyone is judged for their height, weight, race, age, likes, dislikes, etc. In the world today you must conform to the social norm to be considered “cool.” Part of me wants to feel that way and the other part of me just wants to be original and do whatever I want. When I was a little girl I used to perform in musical theater. I loved it so much it made me the happiest I have probably ever been in my entire life. Did everybody

On a bright sunny Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, started off as an ordinary day where Americans were out working to achieve their ambitious goal called the “ American Dream”. I decided to grab a coffee to start off my day. As I walked by a street vendor, he nicely asked: “ It’s a beautiful day huh?”. I smiled and answered, “ Yes it is sir”. “ What are you up to today? Are you in a rush?” he followed. I answered, “I’m just on my way to grab a coffee and get some fresh air”. He waved as we finished our conversation and I continued towards Starbucks.

Richard Nixon once stated “The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep”. If not for his words, I wouldn’t have realized the potential that lay within me. As of today I’ve achieved, in my own eyes, what’s come to be known as the American dream. During the past seven years, I’ve graduated from Washburn University, became a molecular biologist, and established a set of values that I live by.

“American Dream.” Those two words are what drove my parents to escape the challenges of living in poverty stricken Colombia. Being a first generation, young, female, Latina immigrant my upbringing has made me fortunate enough to embrace all of the opportunities available for me.

As an immigrant, life was very difficult financially. With just the clothes on their backs my parents left their home country, Haiti, and came to the US in pursuit of the American Dream. They wanted a better life for my sisters and I, however, we faced many challenges growing up. It was difficult adjusting to a new country, language, and culture. My parents did not speak English nor did they have a formal education, so it was difficult finding a stable job to sustain us. We became dependent on public assistance in order to survive. We lived in a low-income, underserved area and attended low performing schools. Our family income was well below the poverty level but this did not stop me from pursuing my dreams. I was determined to not let my

Writing is a miracle itself. Believing in miracles can make you a proponent of the second chance in life. Following your dream is life long pursuit of one’s purpose. Sometimes winds of destiny are inflating your sails; sometimes you hit a rough spot in the ocean. The drawbacks are good chance for reflection and readjusting. As a first generation immigrant I had the opportunity to witness myself the land of Opportunities and experience the concept of an American dream first hand. Deciding to come and live in the United States and leaving my whole family behind has been hardiest decision that I have made in my life so far. The doubt that this doubts about that decision has chasing me as a bad dream since the day I have arrived in the United States.

I am a young 19 year old hispanic female trying to live the american dream. I was born in Michoacan, Mexico. I came to the United States when i was about one year old, so I was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah with my older sister and my brother. After along came my little sister. My parents are both hispanic, they both never made it to high school, they dropped out in elementry. My parents both came to the United States to live the american dream which I believe was pretty hard for them at first because as I was growing up I had a disability. I fell when I was coming to america,which left me unable to walk. I was bullied throughout elementary and jr high but had a bad past in high school because of my disability.

My “American Dream” wasn’t exactly my American Dream so I’m gonna make up some stuff. The way I will achieve my American Dream is to kinda try in school, just enough to pass it at least, and I will help out my community by doing things around in my area which is almost nothing because I live in the middle of nowhere. In school I will need to finish my English work and complete all of my aows. In Algebra I will have to try really hard because math is super important in life but math is extremely hard and and is dumb but you have to have it.

Some people view the outside world as a dangerous place full of disparity and misery, others like to embrace that unknown and try to use it as a catalyst for inner growth. I like to see myself as the latter, the individual who lives for the rush of the unknown. I looked down to see what I could only describe as a dream come true. It was a ticket for a six month tour around Asia that would lead to the complete immersion of native culture and tradition- Vietnamese Pho, the mountain folk of Nepal, the Muay Thai martial arts of Thailand, Chinese Architecture and the beaches of Laos are some of the places that we got to experience first-hand. As a participant I was expected to live with 15 other individuals from around the world that I had never

Ever since I can remember, I knew my destiny was coming to the United States sooner or later. In my beloved Colombia, I thought it would never happen, however, at the age 10, this girl had to fulfill her destiny. My transition and departure of my homeland was a mixture of heartbreak and joy.

My personal American Dream is essentially to just be successful enough in life, so that I could take care of myself. I do not need to be rich to do this, and to be honest I would be content with just a slightly above average paying job. As long as it would be enough to cover my expenses I would be fine. If I was able to leave work one day and pay for some take-out food as I go home with my own money I would know that I’ve accomplished my American Dream, because I would be supporting myself without the help of others.

It was April 3, 2015. While the wind danced around picking few leaves here and there along with itself, my spirit on the other hand, marked with unease and nervousness stood in stark contrast. It was time to board the airplane for United States of America; it was time to leave India, my birthplace as well as my home for 14 years. With hopes of achieving the American Dream, my family and I would board the airplane, oblivious to the opportunities as well as hardships and sacrifices which would follow. Although the journey might seem as a physical one - of around 15 hours, it was a moral journey of understanding new cultures, new ideas, new struggles.Nevertheless, it was a journey to understand the true beauty of the world.

The American dream can be viewed in a lot of ways to different people. I view it as a variety of things. When I imagine the American dream I think of having so much money I do not have to imagine twice about buying anything, I could have all the cars I ever wanted. Another thing I imagine is having all the Siberian Huskies I want so I can have a big sled dog team. Then I can save the gas in my cars so I can make less stops at the gas station. The last thing I think about is being able to skydive anytime I want to. However, there are also people who just want to have a proficient education and be able to have a family. The American dream is having an amazing education, having a lot of money and having a exceptional family.

The majorities of American’s have grown up and resides in America for pretty much their entire lives. What we view as normal is far from what people in the rest of the world view as normal. Our standard of living and the privileges we have, we often overlook and accept them as our rights. Everything we see, we view that as the standard of living. However, while everywhere else that is what people work every day to attain. One person’s view of standards is subjective to someone else’s. This means that we as American’s view a necessity as a luxury to other parts of the world. As Americans’ what we have, is what the rest of the world wants. While want we want is what none of the world can even imagine attaining, it’s a fantasy. The way my life is shaped in what I want, are attaining privileges that people can only dream off, because after all, this is the land of opportunity.

The first couple years of my life was a very critical learning era in my life. I was faced eye to eye with adversity. Growing up, my family had just enough money to make it day to day. We were living in a townhouse with 3 bedrooms with 12 family members. This townhouse was also connected to a convenient store that was owned and operated by my family. My brother and I didn’t always get everything we asked for but our gracious parents never gave up on hopes of giving us a better childhood then they had. Having 2 parents that were both immigrants from India, they weren’t always offered many opportunities to provide a better life for themselves and their children due to lack of education and language barriers. Although this was a barrier, they never gave on any opportunities they were offered. The environment around this town house wasn’t the best, it was located in Pleasant Grove, South Dallas which is now considered as “the projects” of Dallas. I grew up watching my family members get guns and knives drawn on them in the convenient store doing what was required to sustain a healthy lifestyle for their families, this gave me a better sense of how valuable life is and how short it could be. When I turned 4, my parents got in a huge fight with my grandpa and we were kicked out of the house. This was both a confusing and traumatic period in our lives, we didn’t have anywhere to stay nor money to buy a home. Thanks to my dad’s lifetime friends, also immigrants from India, we were