A nice house with a two-car garage. A steady job that pays a three- figure salary. The ethos of the “American Dream” means something different to every American. However, discourse surrounding the American Dream since the founding of the United States has been characterized by individual success. The Rev. H, 46-year-old mother and spiritual care provider, sees things differently.
H works to embody in her everyday life the values reflected in her favorite Episcopal prayer that asks God to “enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ from most from us.” On a practical level, this means making choices that will honor everyone involved about everything from the food bought at the grocery store to the neighborhood the family moved into.
Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us.
Another important piece of H’s American Dream includes supporting her daughter, Y, who came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied refugee minor from a dictatorship in East Asia, as she pursues her own American Dream. When H heard that Y’s birth father valued education, she made amplifying the importance of education a priority. “For me, my American Dream is about education,” says Y. “When I was young, people did not have high expectations for me.”
Throughout Y’s education, her mother has been her partner in pursuing her dreams. “[Y’s high school] had her on this really slow track with English be- cause they didn’t think she could go to community college, let alone apply for university,” says H. “[She and her sister] came here for education. They want to do this. They are asking to do this. It is our responsibility to come alongside them and help them.”
“And here she is in University.”
H is…
- 46 Years-Old
- Female, Cisgender
- White
- West European and American
- Christian
- Middle Class
- Heterosexual
