The American Experience Essay, Research Paper

My American Experience

America is home to millions of people. I have lived my life in America my entire sixteen years on this world, and have cherished every second of it. Through these sixteen years, I have been able to establish my own thoughts and feelings on what the American experience is about to me. I may have my own opinions, though others may disagree with them. I cannot live the life of the millions of people living in America, nor can I explain the American experience on their behalf through their experiences. My own interpretation is a product all the experiences I have gone through growing up in America.

As a child I was in the process of developing my own character and learning new things. I grew up with the impression that You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. That is what America is all about; the land of dreams and opportunity. If I wanted to become a doctor, I could become one. There s nothing stopping me from becoming president or anything else I want to be. But you don t become president like that. It takes hard work and determination to accomplish anything, hence the phrase if you put your mind to it. The path to success may not be an easy one, but only through hard work and education can it be obtained. Some say we are slaves to society; forced to spend our worthless lives working nonstop. Perhaps one can make that case when referring to a country such as Russia, where the people work for the success of the country with a communist government in place, but at least in America, we all work hard ultimately to acquire happiness and fulfillment.

With this happiness comes the American Dream. The American Dream simply consists of such luxuries as big houses, a nice family and fancy cars. How did it become the American dream? Why do we feel so compelled to pursue it? The reason is because we can and have the ability to obtain such success only in America. It is safe to say that everyone living in America pursues or at least wishes to achieve the American Dream. In the book House on Mango Street, the main character, Esperanza, had the dream of growing up and getting a big house for herself. She had grown up in a poor community and hated it there. Esperanza didn t want to belong; she wanted to move out of Mango Street and live the American Dream. Fortunately for Esperanza, her hard work and intelligence would give her the opportunity to acquire her dreams in America. Such opportunity in America presents riches no other countries can brag about. I may dream of living in a mansion with a large collection of expensive cars, but the difference of someone else living in perhaps Cuba having the same dream is that I have a much larger chance to acquire these things living in America, with it s free economy market, rather than someone living in a country with less opportunity.

Growing up in a relatively rich community may have perhaps spoiled me into acquiring a taste for the good things in life. It is no surprise that I have always longed for expensive things and luxuries that I did not have. Going along the lines of the American Dream, I personally have always had the dream of getting that big house up in the hills with a beautiful wife and family. Getting back to the present however, I am currently on a mission to buy my own Camaro Sports car that I have always wanted. Now that I am soon turning seventeen, I will shortly have a license, and my wishful thinking is that a car would go nicely with my license. However I have been presented with the problem that my parents are against young teen driving, so it has become my prerogative to get my dream car through my own hard work. It is ultimately the American dream that pushes me to accomplish my goal of getting that Camaro sports car that I have always visioned myself driving.

So what is the American Experience? It is difficult to say because of the diverse opinions different people may present. But to me, simply put, the American experience is the everlasting drive for success and longing for achievement of the American Dream through hard work and knowledge gained growing up in such a civilized society that can make such miracles happen. This experience has been a great one to be living these sixteen years such a great country as America. Not even for a Camaro would I ever trade places to live in any other part of the world besides America. That is what America and the American experience means to me.