When asked about the American Dream, oftentimes the conversation is centered around material goods such as a nice home, or a fancy car. However, having the options and opportunities that must be present to reach these goals is an essential component. This spotlight highlights this side of the American Dream: the ability for all to have access to as many options as possible to create the best lives for themselves.
Raised in Kansas, born to a first-generation American mother from Mexico and a father who hails from the Midwest, L offers a unique perspective on the American Dream. According to L, the American Dream is, in its simplest form, doing better than the previous generation: having more freedom for example, or more financial stability. Boiled down to one word, she stated it was simply: stability.
Her own dream however, takes a different form. She defines her American Dream as simply a desire for options. Relating this back to her job at a New York Charter School, L has witnessed the impact that having more opportunities, and the options to follow one’s dreams, can have. Personally, L attributes many of her options to connections made while studying costume design at a university in the Northeast United States.
“It turns out I’m not entirely heterosexual. And so that kind of has opened up a bunch of ideas of what success in relationships looks like.”
She details that opportunities such as job recommendations, and having access to the network of former classmates, stem from the connections she made while attending college. For that reason, she recognizes the value having the option to go to college truly holds, and thus equates that option with her own American Dream. L’s iteration of the American Dream disrupts the common discourses which typically center the American Dream around material goals, without recognizing the opportunities that must be present to reach these goals.
When asked how she arrived at this dream, L traced it back to her childhood. She describes her mother growing up in a single parent household, raised by a father working two jobs, and how this manifested in her mother’s primary goal being to provide for her children a stable home, financial stability and thus the ability to make choices for themselves. These ideals were then rooted in L herself.
This dream of options and opportunities, also connects to L’s personal identity. She states “It turns out I’m not entirely heterosexual. And so that kind of has opened up a bunch of ideas of what success in relationships looks like.” In all aspects of life, she desires the ability to have options to pursue what makes her happiest. L’s American Dream centers around options and opportunities to achieve her goals, and define what success means to her.
L is…
- 39 Years-Old
- Female, Mostly Cis
- White
- Bi-Racial Latina
- Upper Middle Class
- Queer, Bisexual
