- Graduating college with a degree and going straight into a high paying job
- Making tons of money without doing much actual work
- Finding the perfect significant other
- Having children with said significant other
- Living in a house with a white Pickett fence
- Happily growing old as your grandchildren take care of you until you die peacefully in your sleep
Unfortunately for most of us, in order to live the American Dream you have to be pretty dang wealthy. Being wealthy means having not just enough money to fulfill your needs, but also your wants, and sometimes the things you didn't even know you wanted.
You can be like this dude! After all money equals happiness right?
WRONG!
It's unfortunate that in our society people believe that in order to be happy you have to have expensive things and a perfect life. The truth is that as long as you are happy, does it really matter if you house has two bathrooms instead of three? Sadly, the commonly held belief the people who have less money have worse lives. Americans see the 1% as the high and mighty and the people living in poverty as the dregs of society.
I prefer to hold a different opinion than this one. I see it that in most cases you are in control of your own happiness. There are rich people who were born into their money, but there are also people who put in the hard work everyday to make a living. There are the poor people who waste all of their money on drugs, but there are also people who are just caught in a bad situation. No one has any right to judge a person based on the number in their bank account. Not everyone wants to live the American Dream. If someone chooses to live in a tent by the highway because it makes them happy, then more power to them.
After all, in the words of the East High students: We're all in this together!
I actually really enjoyed reading your post! I liked how you listed what the stereotypical American Dream is, and then followed it with the true American Dream is finding happiness, whatever form it may be. It's really interesting how every person has a different way of making themselves happy. I summarize your post in my head as "Do what you want, because haters gonna hater whatever you do." GOOD JOB!!
ReplyDeleteHey Nat! I really appreciate this blog because it's short, simple, and sweet. I love that you included different ways at looking at wealth. There's definitely no formula for happiness, and you don't have to be wealthy to be happy. I agree that some people are lucky and some are just unlucky. There are always stereotypes that rich people inherited all of their money and that people who are poor didn't try in school and had to get a bad job. Either of these things can happen to anyone, and I really like that you wrote about that :) Nice job, Nat!
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