My American Dream
“What is your version of the ‘American Dream’? What do you think success + happiness are?”
The American Dream states that money = success = happiness. But is it true? Is that all a person needs to be happy? In my personal opinion, the answer is definitely not. Happiness can be obtained in many ways. Money could be a great contribution to it, but money itself cannot give someone happiness. To me, there are three things that can give someone happiness (excluding money): i) romantic love; ii) an enjoyable occupation; and iii) helping others.
Romantic love allows us to escape reality for a time and dwell in a state of bliss, totally submerged into another person. When we have our significant other, we learn to appreciate things in life and everything seems to shine. Believe it or not, money cannot buy you love. Love is an abstract concept and no amount of money can buy true love. With this emotion in mind, humans can achieve many successful things because it gives you motivation to do something for someone that means a lot to you. Therefore, not only will you be happy with the person that you love, you will be able to accomplish things for the happiness and be successful in life.
Another way to achieve happiness and success in life is to obtain an enjoyable occupation. You are being paid to do what you love to do. Aside from the emotional stress of doing something that you don’t like, you are actually saving a lot of money by doing something you like. You won’t have to spend as much money on psychiatrists and hobbies outside of work, because work IS your hobby. For example, if you love to travel and you enter an occupation that requires travelling around the world, then you have successfully acquired happiness, because it is what you want to do.
Finally, I believe that helping others is a road to success and happiness. Helping others makes you feel good inside and you have given someone else motivation in life. When you help someone else, you are...
View Full Essay