What is the American Dream?

The American Dream is striving for perfection, believing you are the special exception. Striving to achieve the unobtainable simply cannot be done, because perfection was only ever achieved by one. The American Dream is assigned, being told where you will go and what you will do. You accept and believe that this is your dream, because that is the only option for you. The American Dream is accepting that something better is in store for you, being told you deserve better than those who came before you. The American Dream is being told that you are unique, as you strive to be apart of the one percent elite. Yet, being at the top is not what truly matters. But this aspiration quickly engulfs you causing your life to become so scattered. The American Dream is about power, it is enveloped with control, status is not the most important, yet it is valued over all. Why does our culture put such emphasis on success? Leaving us wondering why we cannot handle all the stress. Watching people crack because they don’t know what to do, when the simple answer lies inside them waiting to begin anew. What happens when you are told where you will go and what you will do? Trying to fulfill these expectations that have been assigned to you, you live that dream until one day you suddenly change your mind experiencing the epiphany that will change your life. Entitlement and worth are at the root of this dream causing you to allow your life to be defined by your dream. But when the realization finally sinks in that the dream you are pursuing is not the right dream for you you are left picking up the pieces of an expectation of a life of an identity constructed by a dream that defined who you were supposed to be. Your dream is not for you, somehow you know this deep inside, as your true dream prevails, not the dream you were assigned, but one constructed for yourself, because after all it is your life, not the life of someone else. What if you wish to pursue another dream? You feel you are torn, knowing the misery that awaits, if you work on pleasing others more, and ignoring your true fate. Yet you’ve worked your entire life to fulfill an empty promise, changing who you are to become someone else. And when it becomes apparent that the role cannot be fulfilled you are left wondering where you went wrong. When in reality your passions lie somewhere else. What the American dream really is, is the dream of another, it is a ticking time bomb, just waiting to expire.