The American Dream

Last year, when I visited my grandpa Stephen Pavelka, he was in his backyard carrying plywood and organizing his treasures for a weekend yard sale, in which he conducts every weekend, especially during the summer. He told me, he spends hours stripping wires to recycle the copper during the winter to make ends meet. He is a retired Army master sergeant who served in the Vietnam War. He is a short stocky man, but strong as an ox, and a role model for my work ethic. It is this drive that runs through my blood as well, it was the same blood that ran through the immigrants, and migrant workers that made America what it is today. Miguel is right when he says anyone can get ahead in America if they just work hard.

In order to get ahead in America today, is different than the 1800’s with the beginning of the industrial revolution. There are varying degrees of getting ahead. If you consider just having a plot of land with a white picket fence, like the 1950’s version of the American dream, then you must work harder for that in today’s age. In the 1950’s it was common for the men to work, and the wife to stay at home and take care of the children, now you will find that in order to support a single family in the United States, both parents are working, or the roles are reversed. The standard of living in America has changed, along with the costs to obtain the basics to maintain that standard of living. To get ahead today, still takes a strong work ethic, but not just in providing labor at a job. Americans have to work hard on getting an education to compete with their peers for jobs, they must also work hard on their networking skills in order to sale themselves or a product they wish to produce. There are multiple bullet points to be a hard worker and to get ahead in today’s America.

My mother was raised in Germany and came to the United States only armed with a high school diploma equivalent. My father joined the Army with a GED. Growing up, I watched them struggle to make ends meet. Together they raised five children. My mother was a stay at home mom, while my dad held multiple jobs after the Army, and throughout the time I grew up in Ohio, he attended multiple vocational schools, in tool making, masonry, and truck driving, etc. He worked hard to keep the family fed. Somethings, no matter how hard you work, are out of your control. Just like in Esperanza Rising, where the migrant workers have to deal with outside influences such as the Oklahomans looking for work. In Ohio, before the 2008 Economic Recession hit the overall United States and the rest of the world, the Midwest was already suffering with job losses. The North American Free Trade Act signed by President Bill Clinton, created incentives for many Midwest factories to close shop and move to Mexico and Canada.

My family, like Esperanza’s family, migrated to where the work was, California. My father was born and raised in California before he joined the Army, so we had family to help us out. During the two years spent in California, my dad held two jobs to make ends meet. We never got ahead and eventually moved to Arizona where the cost of living was far cheaper compared to California. Economic nomads is what I consider this time in my life. My dad, drove a cab for years, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week to make ends meet and to pay the lease on the cab. His health was declining. I eventually had him come to San Diego, California (where I am currently stationed in the Navy) and he is currently working with the Veterans Affairs office to get back on his feet. My Grandpa, who still lives in Ohio and is still working to pay off his two mortgage payments on his homes, is happy tending to his garden, and working hard even at the age of 67.

It is a novel idea that if you work hard you can get ahead, and this statement is true depending on how you look at it. It is easy to look at the condition of my family, and think I am proving the opposite of Miguel’s statement. To the contrary, because of their continued work ethic, they have raised children and grandchildren that have outperformed them in areas of education or in their professions. So getting ahead is not immediate or in a single generation, it is something observed over time, one generation after another growing and out performing their predecessors. At the end of the book of Esperanza Rising, you learn about the author’s family, of which the story is based on. Esperanza’s real family, got ahead generations after she put in the hard work in the fields. I work hard, not just for me, but to be a role model for my son, so he can know what work ethics my father and my grandpa have. I will consider the successes of my offspring the final test in whether I get ahead in the United States.