Is The American Dream Achievable??

I have been wondering this quite a bit lately, I guess though the first step is going to be defining what the American Dream actually is. I would say that at least from my perspective the American dream is to have a decent job with decent pay and benefits, to be able to afford to by a decent modest place of your own, and have a decent retirement when your working years come to an end. Maybe this is childish or overly idealistic, but it is at least my version of what the American Dream, and one that is very important to me, as well as finding that special man, and raising a family with them. Yet I wounder if big parts of the dream are achievable.

I know that I am lucky I work full time at a decent (union) job, with decent pay for the area that I live in. ($12.90 PH with raises over the next three yeas to over $13 PH) I have decent benefits, good insurance, a 401K, union pension. I have worked at this job for 5 years, in other words since I was 18 (when I graduated HS) worked my way up the pay scale and seniority to journeymen. I have saved my money avoided debt with my only debt ever being a car lone that was payed off 3years early. I have never spent extravagantly and always saved but it seems that one of the key parts of my American Dream is still out of reach, and that would be the ability to afford a decent place of my own. I don't have lofty expectations or desires for my first place, matter of fact to me the ideal first place would be a one bedroom condo, I mean I'm only one person, I don't need tons of space and something that size would be easier to maintain and economical to "run". I just get the feeling that no matter how much I do what I am supposed to in order to achieve this part of my dream I am perpetually one step behind, not only that but that every time I seem to be making progress the goal line gets moved further and further out.

I know at 24 that I do have some time, before I truly start to reach a point where I'm falling embarrassingly behind my other piers, yet I still feel like that goal line is ever moving out of my reach. I have saved towards this goal since I was in HS, and started saving even more aggressively since I started working, I have saved up what should be a nice amount of money yet still dose not seem to be enough. which is funny when you see all those first time buyer shows where they often have just about the same or less saved up better then I what I have now. Yet when you still live at home because luckily your parents like having you there and don't want you out the door any time soon, as well as the fact that because they don't charge rent I can stuff aside all that much more money into my savings that would otherwise just go into some one else's pocket, it still stings a little.

I could just be, being hard on my self, maybe setting my goals to aggressively but even now it seems like when I am 28 I might just barely be getting into reach of my goal unless prices fall a "nice" amount more, as by then I should if nothing goes wrong have something over 50K but it's looking like that might not even be quite enough to cover a down payment on a decent one bedroom condo. It's like I have done everything that one is supposed to do, work hard, live simply, and save, yet it seems my reward for doing so is to be laughed at for actually behaving that doing so was supposed to help you get anywhere and believing that I could ever achieve this goal of mine, yet I keep trying. I don't know maybe at this point it is clinging onto a dream that will never be achieved, and just prolonging the joke, but I don't want to believe that. I want to believe that the dream is still alive and that I can achieve it. Then again maybe that hope is simply to childish and optimistic.

The Temptation Of The High

While being balanced mode wise is something that is good and something that I am glad to be, although I do wish that my medications made me feel less drained like I have been dragging a heavy weight around with me while I do things, in part because my mind seems to be sort of slow and just not totally with it at times leaving it to take a lot of energy to concentrate and get things done and that mental energy also has a physical manifestation as well, and is what tends to make me feel the most drained. while it is good to be balanced it is hard to not want to have a taste of the forbidden fruit that I have been brought down from having a minor taste of and that is to be on the more manic side of things. It is times like this when I know that the meds are keeping me from an amazing natural high, that it is so tempting just to stop taking my medications.

Mental Health Awareness

As some of you may or may not know May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and as such I thought I would write a blog post to try and help do my part to help raise awareness, and end the stigma of mental illness. I also hope to show provide some hope in the process. As many of you already know I have a mental illness, and that is Bipolar Disorder, which I was diagnosed with only relatively recently, about a year ago, although I have had it for a nice chunk of my life. It is something that while I am still just in the beginning stages of starting to understand and control, I don't feel that it is something that I should have to be ashamed of or have to worry about others finding out about it. unfortunately though there is quite a large amount of stigma that surrounds mental illness especially "serious mental illness", which they are for those that suffer from them (and those close to them as well) unfortunately though it also makes it sound scarier t...

The Attacks Start At the Last Minute

With only a week left until ballots mail out in Washington state, Protect Marriage Washington has started airing their first ad in what is doubtless to be a series of ads to run threw the election on Nov 6. as the Seattle times says about this time in the election cycle "for a ballot measure that isn't up on the air now is missing a big opportunity. Ballots mail out next week" and it appears that even though they are late to the race compared to the Approve campaign that has had ads running for months between Washington United for marriage and an ad run by Seattle Pride during the summer Olympics they seem to be coming out of the gate swinging using some of the same old tactics that have proven so effective in the past in scaring the public into voting their way. although this time they seem to have thrown in another tool to their approach ...

Comments

Biki HonkoOctober 9, 2011 at 8:39 PM
to me the american dream is to have more than our parents had, and yeah sadly that is not often the way of the land anymore. but while the american dream is drifting out of many of us, we arent the only ones in this boat, the EU seems to be having financial issues as well. we seem to be in a world wide depression, hopefully it wont worsen much more....
aNorthWestViewOctober 9, 2011 at 11:31 PM
It seems to be only those at the very top who make up the rules or hell just brake them without any reprise are the ones getting ahead, while the rest of us tread water till we sink bellow the surface.

A North West View

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