The American Dream

My family (Tatiana, Anton, Alex, Katya)

The American Dream. Three words that have a great influence over my life. I come from a family of Russian immigrants (my mom and dad) who came here to pursue their own American Dream. They came all the way from Russia because of their incredible talents in figure skating. A Russian coach recruited them to the United States to come and skate for the beloved Disney On Ice Figure Skating Company. They were both pair skaters and they got to travel all around the world. When picking a place to eventually settle down, they chose America. Why? It is according to their opinion that at the time I came into the world (1997), the government in Russia wasn't exactly in the best shape. After all, it was still trying to rid itself of complete Communism from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991. Staying in America would provide them with the best chance of raising me where there was peace and that had a stable government with the Clinton Administration. It was a hard decision for them, but looking back now, they tell me it was the right one. I can tell it's hard for them sometimes, because they haven't had a chance to visit their parents (my grandparents) and siblings (my aunts and uncles) in what would now be about 15 years. It is a good thing that Skype is around! This is the closest thing my family has to speaking and seeing our extended family overseas.

In my eyes, I would describe the American Dream as something special. It is a chance for me to go out into America and become something worthy. For me, the dream is to be the first person in my family (here in the States) to attend college. It puts a lot of pressure on me to do well in school so that I can get the scholarship money to afford the college that I want to attend. Especially since I come from hard-working parents who can't afford to send me off to college due to financial reasons. The American Dream I have for myself is to make my way out on my own and with hard work (like my parents who had nothing when they came here), go to college and get a job to pay off funds. Then, of course, I would like to go into a career that will bring me joy so that I can start helping out my parents when they get older in age and give back to them what they so generously provided for me to be able to pursue my goals.

When I think of wealth, I see it as any substantial assets that an individual has gained over their entire lifetime due to hard work or success. It seems to me that Americans' attitudes towards wealth is that America is a prosperous nation to achieve it. They tend to neglect the fact that not everyone in America is rich or can get rich quickly. Wealth is often inherited, and it is actually a very hard thing to achieve on your own. Education is one factor that may play a role, investments in the stock market, or owning a business may be other factors. Most of America's wealthy reside in the Upper class which only makes up about 2-3% of our social class. Americans think it is easy to get wealthy because America is a nation of promise and prosperity. Some Americans think they can achieve wealth with the aid of God. When it comes to poverty however, Americans tend to ignore the underlying issues that cause poverty. Our class system is where the problems arise; those in the working class aren't treated as fairly despite their difficult lives.

My opinion toward wealth is that only those born into rich families who are involved in politics or own large corporate companies can be considered wealthy. It has nothing to do with the American Dream. However, in certain circumstances wealth can result from the start of a dream if it gains enough attention over time. For example, look at the successes of John D. Rockefeller who became a major influence to Americans' belief in the American Dream. As far as my opinion on poverty, I think that not enough is being done to attract attention to its causes. Poverty results from people who can't find proper schooling, have to drop out from school, don't have a job, or have experienced a traumatic event in their life. It is important for our government to work on finding solutions to help immigrant families like mine find equal opportunities to be able to put their children into college and encourage them to pursue careers and not end up working blue-collar jobs for the rest of their lives.