Name Name
Paper # 2

Pleasantville

	Utopia: an imaginary, idealistic place where everyone and everything is in a state of utter and complete happiness.  Utopia is the kind of place where Americans want to reside everyday, enjoying every minute of it.  
	The American dream revolves around the perfect lifestyle: a faithful husband or wife, a little boy, a little girl, a cat, a dog, a prosperous career, a charming home like one seen in a Home Interior catalog, a safe neighborhood, and a close knit family.  It’s not only about the material possessions.  It’s about waking up every morning and knowing that you are on your way to a job that you love.  It’s about sitting on your front porch with your soul mate, drinking lemonade and eating homemade cherry pie.  It’s about being there as your kids grow up, whether you are on that porch watching them play in the yard, comforting them because they fell off their bicycle, or watching them receive their diploma at high school graduation.  It’s about knowing that ten, twenty, or fifty years from now, you can look back on life and have no regrets.  That is what the “American dream” is.  That is what life is all about.
	I believe that Americans today all share this similar dream.  Everyone has dreams and aspirations, but you must be willing to work for them.  When you are an innocent little kid growing up, you always imagine yourself as a doctor, a professional baseball player, or an elementary school teacher.  Your ambitions are limited because you are completely unaware of what your life can really be.  Being young and naïve, you can’t fully understand what kind of life is ahead of you and what details are important.  As you grow and mature into adolescense, you see the life you want, but it never really occurs to you that it might not turn out that way.  After high school graduation, you are thrown into a world where you start to control your own life.  Most people go to college to further educate and better themselves.  Some don’t and wish they had.  College is a part of life that most people want, but don’t get a chance at.  It’s the place where you truly discover yourself and realize what it is that you want and most of these college students share the same dream – the “American Dream”.
	I, on the other hand, have a slightly altered opinion of what the American dream is.  Of course I want the good family, money, the nice house, and children, but there are other things that are of greater importance to me.  As I enter college, it feels as if the weight of the world has been placed on my shoulders.  There are so many decisions to make and so many challenges to meet.  Graduating college and landing a succesful career is very important to me, but it will be the pride in my parents’ eyes when I receive my diploma that will make it all worth it.  Making my parents proud of me has always been something that I have strived for.  With being the youngest child in my family, it feels as if the standards have been set as to what is expected of me.  Knowing that my parents are proud of me is such an amazing feeling.
	When I look at my parents, there are certain things that I hope to accomplish in comparison to them, yet there are others, which I hope to avoid.  My mom is a successful career woman who makes sure that I have everything I need.  She is the reason that I am currently enrolled in college.  At times, I may have wanted her to stop pushing so hard, but it is because of her determination, that I have become as successful as I am.  I admire her determination and hope to show the same kind of dedication in school as she has, in order to pursue my desired career.  My dad is a greatly encouranging person who always exclaims his pride for me and in turn, makes me feel proud of myself.  Although my dad didn’t complete college, he knew what he wanted to do and did it.  He is happy and I hope to attain this kind of contentment and be at peace with myself.  Although there are things about my parents that I hope to exercise in my own life, they are two different people with two separate lives because they are divorced.  This is something that I never want for myself.  Divorce is so difficult for the children and the spouses involved.  I hope that I do find my soul mate and our love is so great that we grow old together in a life filled with love, the kind of love described in a reading from Paul to the Corinthians in a passage from the Bible: “Love is always patient and kind.  It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited, it is never rude or selfish, it does not take offense and is not resentful.  Love takes no pleasure in other people’s faults, but delights in the truth.  It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope.  It is always ready to endure whatever comes.  True love does not come to an end.”  That is the kind of love I wish for myself.  Finding unconditional love in my life is one of my most important goals. 
	I left for college, leaving the greatest friends in the world behind, and I am missing them terribly.  They are irreplaceable people.  They made my high school years amazing and I love them.  Part of my American dream includes these incredible people.  They were my main inspirations in high school and I will continue to look up to them as they live out their own dreams.  I wish to never lose touch with my high school friends.
	For me, it is not the fancy cars, the huge house, or the growing bank accounts that are my dream; it is the people.  My American dream is spending my life with my family and friends that love me, and in the end, I wish to have no major regrets about my life because that would mean that I lived it right.