Undoing the American Dream Part 1

I don’t know exactly when I knew I had made it. It’s possible that I made this realization years later. But I had achieved it. I did fulfill the American Dream.

And, yet, ironically, one currently living the American Dream never fully achieves it. Because, the American Dream is based on the premise of better and bigger. There is never actually a point where any American sits back on a deck chair with a martini and cigarette in hand, and says, “Yep. I’ve made it guys. Here I am. Living proof of the American Dream.”

Growing up in the States, we are bred and raised on the American Dream. If you work hard enough, you will succeed. And it is true. The problem is the measure of success. One simply doesn’t know when success is achieved because there is always more to gain. Cheering along beside the American Dream is the stereotypical paradigm of how life should be lived. There is a template! After high school, one goes to university where you meet your future mate. After university, you get married and buy your first home in the suburbs. Shortly thereafter, you have 2.5 kids and then you upsize your home to something bigger and a better school district. You work corporate and steadily climb the ladder, or you have a local business and grow it. You meet fellow parents, have weekend pizza gatherings, talk about team sports, and guide your own kids to follow the same template. You make more money and you buy more things. You upgrade your sturdy Ford for a luxury Audi. You want your kids to have a better life than you did, so you buy them the latest designer clothes and phones. You work like a dog because the neighbor has a pool and now you want one, too. You use your 2 week vacation per year to do something exotic, like a a trip to Spain; and you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation because you jammed pack every single day trying to see the entire country. You now have to work even harder and give up your measly vacation time because you have to send your kids to the best universities. And the bills pile up, the debt increases, and yet you still have to consume more. The kids leave for university to follow the template, and you patiently keep working so you can look forward to the grand kids. By the time your children finally finish grad school, the marriages and grand kids follow. By this time, you are between 60-70 years old. You want to retire but you have no savings, so you keep working. By the time you finally retire, you want to travel and see the world. But you are so old and tired, that you end up sitting with the grand kids while the parents work their way up the corporate ladder. And the cycle continues…

The actual typical American Dream is achieved once you recognize your freedoms, have children or furkids, own a house, and have a secure job, whether employed or entrepreneurial. That is the basis of the platform. I not only achieved the dream, I surpassed it. I bought into the marketing of making my life better, doing more, buying more, and I paid for it dearly. Somewhere in the middle of my template for life, I said no. Looking back, I can see the signs were all there to revolt. I tried to conform but I ultimately did not. This is the story of my successes and failures. This is also the story of a paradigm smashing.