The American dream is the ideal of equal opportunities to achieve your goals and have a better life. Many people have a dream, but not everyone has the same opportunities to make it come true. Achieving the American dream is not easy because it requires working hard and overcoming obstacles along the way. Everyone has a dream, but for some it is not easy to achieve it. My American dream is to have a stable job so I can prosper, buy my own house, raise a family and help my parents. It may not be easy to achieve but with sacrifice, dedication and faith anything is possible. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayAn obstacle you may need to overcome to achieve the American Dream may be moving to a new place and having to learn a new language, make new friends, or find a new job. My father, for example, Rogelio Valencia, came to the United States from Mexico at the age of 18. It was difficult for him to adapt to the American lifestyle because there are many different cultures than what he was used to. He also had to leave behind many friends and family and once he arrived here in the United States he realized that this was a new beginning for him. I am lucky that I don't have to face this problem because I have been living in the same place for 13 years. Sometimes in life, it's okay to make new changes and start over. Making a change offers new opportunities. A difficult challenge to overcome when trying to achieve the American dream is learning a different language. My father, coming to the United States, could only speak Spanish, it was difficult for him to communicate with other people. It became a problem, but then later he learned to speak a little English, he wasn't fluent but he could communicate better. He learned in a job where everyone spoke English, he had to learn because he needed to communicate with colleagues and clarify things when he wasn't sure about something. I am fortunate to have grown up in a place where English is taught to children at a young age and I did not have to struggle to learn a new language later like my father. There are obstacles on the way to achieving the American dream, but to achieve it you have to grow and overcome the difficult times. The obstacles one goes through once are what makes the person be who they are at the time of achieving the American dream. One obstacle many people face when arriving in a new place to achieve the American dream is settling for less because they feel like they can't achieve or do better. My godfather's sister for example is a single mother of three, she only cleans about 2 houses a week and once she has enough money to get by the week she stops. He conforms to whatever he can do with as few homes as possible, as long as he has enough for the week. I started working this year and realized that making $18 an hour in the bay area isn't enough because of how expensive it is. I don't want to work the rest of my life for minimum wage and settle for that. I want to be able to have a well-paying job that interests me. Being able to work a job that allows me to cover my monthly expenses and save for any emergency is important. It's important to overcome these obstacles by trying and doing new and better things. If you don't overcome obstacles, you will be stuck in the same spot for the rest of your life. You should never settle for less but rather more. Poverty is an obstacle for many people to achieving the American dream. Many people don't have money or couldcome from a low-income family where money becomes a problem and does not allow them to achieve their goals. Erin and Sarah, in their article “It Takes a Village to Sustain the American Dream” state that “Children raised at the bottom of the economic ladder and who emerge from the bottom as adults are also more financially secure than their childhood peers who get stuck there.” What Erin and Sarah said reminded me of middle school where I was friends with people who began to dislike the lifestyle they led. The people I was friends with took the easy route of selling drugs because they saw that the money came to them very easily and now they were able to get what they wanted with a different lifestyle. I understood how desperate they were to meet their needs, but that wasn't the path I wanted them to take. I grew up with the same problems I wanted so badly when I was young, but it wasn't possible for my parents to give me everything I wanted. During my senior year, once I turned 18, I waited about 2 months after then applying to work for the district where I became a youth instructor. Once hired I was able to start getting the things I wanted, but in the "correct" way and not like my middle school classmates. I have been working for 7 months now and I bought a brand new car from the dealership on my own because of the hard work and effort I put in. I am currently a full time employee and a full time student and I want to be able to become a police officer, have my own home, be financially stable and make up for the latter not only for myself but for my parents who have made so many sacrifices for me and my sister. Many people come from poor backgrounds and find the easiest way out by joining gangs and drugs. It shouldn't be like this, you should go to college or try to start a business and we know that trying to start a business or go to college is expensive, but we live where the funding is available to us. Getting grants, loans or scholarships can help us achieve our dreams (goals). Family has been an obstacle for many people in pursuing their American dream. Not having the support of one's family or if the family does not believe in one, it can be very difficult to achieve the goals that an individual may have. Melissa Carver, in her article "What to Do When Your Family Doesn't Support Your Goals" says, "There will be times when some family members won't support your goals." Sometimes we don't get the response we want from our family or we have disagreements, but that's okay. For example, when I first told my parents that my dream job was to become a police officer, I received negative feedback. My father said to me: “No, I don't agree with what you want, do you want to get shot and die? Why don't you become a doctor or something?" Having my parents disagree with me and hearing my father say negative things to me hurts me. Every time they asked me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I always answered the same thing and also my parents told me the same thing. I wasn't going to let my parents' negative feedback stop me from doing what I wanted. Over time they realized that I really wanted to be a police officer and started to accept what I wanted. Now I'm in college and I'm taking AJ classes so I can get my degree and apply to become an officer and I'm happy to have it because they've come to accept it, that's what I want and it will make me happy. We all want to have the support of our ownfamily to achieve our goals, but it's not always the way we want it. We shouldn't let our family stop us from being successful, sometimes it's better to be alone and achieve your goals. Another obstacle an individual may face while attempting to achieve the American dream is education. My father had to stop going to school at a young age and from then on he never went back to school, he didn't have the chance to continue his studies. He began working at a young age and once he arrived in the United States he had difficulty finding a job since many jobs require people to have at least a high school diploma and Social Security. He worked with several companies but felt that the pay and days were not enough. My father, on the other hand, bought an old Volkswagen from which he dismantled every part of the car and in his free time began to reassemble the car. He then began working on the cars of close family and friends and has since become a self-employed mechanic. I, on the other hand, am going to college to become a police officer and becoming an officer requires education. I am lucky to live in a country where education is available to everyone and my parents gave it to me because not everyone is lucky to have an education. My father managed to become a mechanic not in an easy but rather risky and difficult way. On the other hand, I have the easiest path to success because I have been fortunate enough to receive an education that will lead me to my dream job. Achieving success without an education can be difficult. We are fortunate to live in a place where there are adult schools and graduate schools that help people get their diploma. Once you get your diplomas, you can achieve your goals. Even trying to please someone else can be very difficult for someone to achieve their American dream. There are many times when someone tries to convince someone to do things their way and people follow what others say. For example, my cousin never became a Marine like she wanted to because her parents told her they didn't want her to leave them. She followed what her parents told her and never did what she wanted, she works taking care of the elderly in her city. When I first told my parents that I wanted to be a police officer, they told me that I shouldn't be because it was a very risky job and that as a girl being a doctor or something else suited me better. I always told them that I wanted to be able to do a job that I really liked and not what they wanted. Over time they began to understand me and that it was not their choice but rather mine because I am the one who will live it. My parents learned from my uncles' mistake when they forbade their daughter from doing what she wanted and now she is forced to do something she didn't want to be her job forever. It is important to note that regardless of what you do, you should always do something because you want to do it and not because others tell you to. Many people face the problem of having low self-esteem and have a negative attitude towards what they do. everything and this becomes an obstacle for them to achieve their American dream. Growing up from elementary school to high school I was bullied. I never understood why they always made fun of me if I never bothered anyone. From being bullied for many years my self esteem increased and I always thought that I was never worth anything and that I had no purpose for being in this world. I have always been negative and always thought that I wouldn't be able to do great things like others because I came.