We have been sold on the American Dream. We 20 some things have been sold on this thing. Well, I have some bad news: It is unattainable.

      The American dream is a myth. It does not, can not, and will not exist.

     We are sold on different ideas. It can be the parents, with their 2.5 kids. It can be the single, successful, affluent person. It can be the newly wed couple, so happy together, caught up in the perpetual honeymoon.
It depends on the person.

     It is a lie. We, as a generation, are unable to attain these ideas. We can not beat our parents, with their suburban lives. We can not best them, as is the goal of every generation. It can not happen.

     Let us face the facts. 50% of us come from a broken home. According to the facts, that means we will also end our marriages in divorce. We will have trouble finding any stable relationships in our lives. We come from the “dysfunctional” families, and we will propitiate dysfunctuality. We will be unhappy in our relationships, in our daily routines. We will strive to make something of ourselves, to live up to the portrait of ourselves that is shown in the media. And in the end, we will end up hollow people, who drink to
much and who are in all incomplete.

     We do not have the motivation. We will continue to do what is “expected” of us, and we will wear our fake smiles. But underneath, we will be smoldering volcanoes of unhappiness and rage. Is it any wonder that we riot at the drop of a hat. We have tried to express ourselves in other ways, but can not. We have tried to be the people we are told we should be, but can not. We put forward the happy faces of who we think we are supposed to be, but right under the surface we rage with unhappiness and indignation.

     And so, at the end of the day, we do what makes everything wash away. In the evening, when we get done in the boring jobs, which our $100,00 degrees have earned us, whether it be bussing tables or sitting in a cubicle, we do what makes everything disappear, and the euphoria set in. We go and we drink. We go and we smoke. We drink and smoke ourselves into happiness. We use these things to wash away the failure we feel. We drink to the memory of what we thought we would be, and the way we thought our lives would play out.

     We were raised on impossible dreams. We were told that we could be the CEO, the presidents of our own companies. But, there are only so many positions at the executive table that need to filled. There can be only so many movie stars and rock singers. There are only so many places you can go right out of college with a BA degree from a college or university. McDonalds is always hiring, and there is always a lack of waitresses.

     So, to those who are older, understand us. We do not blame you. We do not wish for you to pity us. We are happy enough. We are striving to make you proud, to hear those words of praise that make the days of drudgery worth it.

     And those younger, take heed. Do not buy into the fantasies played out on TV. Do not buy into those imaginative stories, where the orphan becomes the president. Do not buy into the corporate culture. Do not get sucked in. Fight to be who you want to be, who you need to be. Fight to be that thing which makes you happy. Strive for your dreams, but realize that just because your parents and family say your are the prettiest child on the block, that does not make it so. Just because the people on Friends are able to find the jobs that fulfill their dreams, that because Dawson is able to change the world by making a heartfelt speech, that just because the NBA players were able to rise out of the ghetto, this does not and will not make it so. Be angry that you have been sold on the same things that we have, but resolve to do something about it.

     In all, I suppose that I wish to simply say that we are unhappy. Overall, we are not where we expected to be, nor are we doing what we expected. We were sold on things which we know are unattainable, but are unwilling to admit it yet. We do not want to be the people we came from, but in the end we have no choice. We will wake up one day, with longing to go back and do what we wanted. But we will realize that we can not. And we will muddle through, as we have done, and probably will do forever.

-Joe Bevis