Reviving the American Dream

      Our nation's 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, once said, "Believe you can, and you're halfway there." These words ring true and clear in my mind every day, with every action I make, as I strive toward my goal of opening my own business.
      I am in college now and undoubtedly several years removed from the realization of this dream. In the meantime, I am encouraged not to lose sight of my long term goal by the legacy left by many great Americans before me. From our founding fathers who declared the pursuit of happiness a human right to the great entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie, and from one of the earliest revolutionaries Thomas Paine to the hard-hitting muckraker Jane Addams, there are too many amazing citizens of this great country to consider just one my greatest inspiration. Therefore, I consider an aura that each of them embodies to be my biggest inspiration: the American spirit.

      My ultimate goal is to one day own an organic marketplace dedicated to providing local, clean, unprocessed groceries to my neighbors at affordable prices. Though this may seem a hippie-dippie goal, it has less to do with personal health benefits than with growing the economy, supporting small farms, empowering families with a choice, and taking back the food industry from  failed FDA and USDA funded factory farms like Monsanto.
     I consider working toward my goal a hobby because I enjoy it and put effort into it every day. When I am discouraged, uncomfortable, or plain old scared when it comes to achieving my goal I do not scurry away and tend to a back-up plan. I think of that American spirit- that can do, will do attitude- that so many great citizens of yesterday employed in their own lives. I know that our country is not perfect and may not be as good as it once was, but it would not be nearly as achieved as it is today if someone like Martin Luther King, Jr. never stood up and fought for his dream. I tell myself that if John D. Rockefeller could utilize the path of freedom and ability to transform his life and his country, so can I.
      I am awestruck by what the American people have accomplished over our country's relatively short lifespan. Though some famous citizens have values that do not quite align with my own, I still find that there is an abundance of role models in our nation's history from whom to seek inspiration. In a time where it is fashionable to be unpatriotic or, contrarily, blindly patriotic to a point of comedy, I think it is important (and almost rare) to draw motivation from our history. In this way, we can realize that the American dream is not simply a pigeon-holed vision of a white picket fence- it is living out what millions have fought and died for, that freedom to choose and live and be how we like that our forefathers started revolutions for. That is the American spirit that spurs me toward reviving the American dream. I will not live a mediocre life in a country made so great by the bravery and determination of those who came before me, but a life that will continue their legacy and hopefully- after I have done everything in my power to embody that spirit on my own- inspire at least one more person to do the same.

Need an Inspiration? Read about more great Americans here.