Robert Reich once said, “The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches - with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone - was once at the core of the American Dream.” My interpretation of the American Dream is coming from nothing and making yourself worth something. It's about bettering yourself in order to make you successful. Having GRIT and determination to achieve higher class and more money so that you and your family can live steadily and not have to worry about whether your child was going to go bed hungry or not. I believe, today, that it is harder to achieve success if you are from a lower class. 

My idea of the American Dream is having equal opportunity. It's not fair that two people, one from a higher class and one from a lower class, who have just as much knowledge, yet only one can go to college because the other can’t afford it even with financial aid. That is not having equal opportunity. College is so expensive that even the average person is in more debt than what they end up making a year. By making college rates so expensive it's basically wasted opportunities for people of lower classes to make something of themselves and support family's of their own. How are people supposed to buy a house and support their family if they can’t even get a good education to do so? Student loans are an option but they put people in so much debt. The average student owes approximately $37,000. You can’t make a profit off a job that only pays $20,000 a year. You would have no stability and would be constantly struggling paycheck to paycheck to put food on the table and keep a roof over your families head. Without equal opportunity, less and less people are going to go to college to get an education.

Another part of the American Dream for me is having good money. People with money can expand to broader horizons easier than less wealthy individuals. Having wealthy parents to fall back on gives a confidence boost when going to college because if you flunk out or just decided you don't want to go to school, most wealthy families have a business that you could help run or eventually take over. Another way being wealthy achieves the American Dream is by being able to do what you want. For example, if you want to start a business from the ground up you have the money to do that instead of having to take out a loan and being in debt. If you wanted to be a business mogul then you could do that because you have the finances to buy businesses and help grow them to be more successful. The last way being wealthy helps to achieve the American Dream is by having stability. Not having to worry about whether the bills are going to get paid or if your kids have lunch money at school is a very big stress reliever. 

I think it is going to be difficult for me to achieve success and the American Dream. I plan on getting a bachelor degree in Biology and continuing my education in medical school. The average college debt of someone who has graduated medical school is approximately $166,000. That is not in mine or my parents budget. This is what would make it very hard for me to achieve the American Dream. I would be spending so much money paying off my debt that I wouldn't be making a profit to pay my bills and living the steady life that a graduate from the medical field should be living. My parents also have 2 other kids that they have to send to college so they can’t just focus on me. Both of my parents have good jobs so I would get little if not any financial aid. This is why i’m not sure that I could achieve the American Dream.