Overcoming The Past

Struggle is constant, but it can be solved with grit for it opens the doors of opportunity for
solutions to be created. Luan Andrews was born into a lower middle class Christian family in
Washington State during the 1960s. Her parents did not have very much money. This, in turn
would cause her to develop the idea of working for herself. They gave her the calluses that would
stay with her forever. Thus, her American Dream centers around this idea as well as many
others. These ideals have propelled her throughout her life up until today.
Taking a few moments, Luan summarized the definition for her American dream as,
Working for yourself, and being your own boss and being able to control how much you worked
and what days and and what times. Having a choice, a say, in what you do and networking for
anyone else but yourself. This has been her idea of of what the American Dream is. It did
however, take several experiences to come up with this ideal.
Throughout the early parts of her life, Luan did not have a lot of breathing room in terms
of wealth. Her parents did not have the most rewarding income and thus, there was not a lot of
extra money. Luan felt like this was holding her back. She felt her familys economic status was
weighing her down like a ship whose anchor is stuck on the bottom of the sea floor. Eventually,
she decided to go out into the world on her own and when she was old enough, she got herself a
job and began to pay her way through high school, and eventually on through college. It was like
she was the first person to summit Mt. Everest, life put up the challenge of her economic status,
but she still continued to climb and achieve her goals. She stated the moment that defined her
coming of age was when she put herself through graduate school with a masters in psychology in
1983. The feeling was like the end of a long run, she felt accomplished at the fact that she was
finally able to have the opportunity to work in a field that she could enjoy. Even so, this
achievement had not been obtained without some struggle. Before this, she had gone through
college with a degree in education. However, she did not approve of what the schools were
focused on. She disapproved of how they seemed to be focused more on administration and
profit, versus on how to properly educate students and ensure their overall health. Not unlike
how some schools and colleges operate today. In addition, over the course of her career teaching
first through eighth graders, she found herself getting repeatedly involved with things that did
not directly occur in the classroom. She was forced to deal with issues outside the classroom or
things that involved a certain degree of counselling, as they mostly involved mentality issues
instead of materialistic issues. I felt that I was always putting so much energy into that area that
I wanted to work in psychology. Eventually, she left the education sector in order to pursue
psychology. However, this idea was fairly new around this time period and as such, many people
viewed it as a paradox. Up to this point in her life, Luan had felt that the fact she is caucasian had
most definitely played into her favor, but she would soon face a bigger instance where the color
of her skin was not the deciding factor, but rather the fact that she was a woman.
While in college she was told by a college counselor, Youre a woman. You can not go
into psychology. Luan found it quite bewildering that her college counselor was the one telling
her this. During the eighties, this sort of sexist thinking towards women was not uncommon, but
like how a friendly looking dog can turn out to be hostile, he informed her that women did not
have a place in psychology because they simply could not handle some of the things they may
encounter, where as men could. For example, it was thought women did not posses the mental

capacity and durability in order to be able to propers assess and treat a patient. Now, she could
have just stopped there and just gone back to teaching. A lot of her female friends had not seized
the opportunity to go to graduate school and ended up getting stuck with their degrees, stuck in a
loop created by society. Instead Luan payed her way through graduate school and got her degree,
sticking to her ideals of what she thinks the American Dream is. During this time, she met a
fellow psychology graduate student and the two became friends and supported each other
through school. Eventually they made a pact that when they graduated with their degrees, they
would work together in the counseling business. And low and behold, they did. Since then, the
center of what Luan believes is the American Dream has not changed much. She still believes
that it is working for but she acknowledges the fact that since she completed grad school, a lot of
things in society and America have evolved.
I still think its about working for yourself and being your own boss, but its also
evolved and been reshaped by society. In a way, what she describes is not unlike her description
of the schools when she was still a teacher. She made the connection between how insurance
companies are affecting what peoples American Dreams are because they mainly go after
profit. They are the kid who take another kids toy and w will not give it back until they give
them what they want. And that kid whose toy was stolen, is at the mercy of the one who stole it
and focuses all their time on doing what the other kid says so that they may get back or have
what they want. Of course, Luan does admit that there are many economic difference between
her time and the present, but she still agreed with the observation that people's financial situation
can sometimes hold people's ambitions and dreams hostage.
Its a sacrifice of practicality over happiness. She cites money and how money is
managed in todays world causes people to think twice about where they want to go in life. It is
similar to what happened with a lot of her friends. They stayed with what society offered them,
similar to how you might find that people often can not pursue the careers they want today
because they simply cannot afford housing or the tuition. And you have people trying to work as
much as possible in order to pay off their college debt for the majority of their life and focusing
on work instead of what make them happy. Luan said she does not think this is a way to live out
the so called American Dream because its impossible to do so if you are constantly thinking
about money. You should be able to do what makes you happy and to take pride in what you do.
The American dream has evolved with the changes in societys views, and judgements. In some
ways, a lot of things that have changed in the world are for the better, but there are also some
things that have not changed or have changed so that it now has a negative effect.
In the end, Luan has used her ideals and perspective of the American Dream to propel
herself to where she is today. Still staying true to the deal she made with her friend from graduate
school, she now works for herself and has been successful in her career and considers herself to
be in the upper middle class, a big step forward from where she began. An example of a dream
that came to fruition with a combination of grit and stubbornness. This way of thinking also
occurs in all cultures, and countries.
Whether or not Luans experience correlates with the events, big and small, that occurred
up until, or around the time of her coming of age moment is debatable. The steady progress of
development in the realm of technology, and the always changing ideals and morals make for
influences that can both possibly be argued as both good or bad, progressive or not. Luans

experience mainly focused around the idea of self motivation while ignoring the general ideals of
society of that time. The possibility of whether or not her story can be considered a parallel to, or
have a connection to events that occurred during that time period, or another persons story is
significant. These events and variables can include, but are not limited to race/ethnicity, gender,
social class, religion and origin.
Taking a look back to Luans American Dream, the idea of women working the same jobs
as men was not a new one, but was at the same time a bit of a taboo. Coming out of World War
II, many women wanted to keep their jobs, or keep working in similar ones, as they had made up
the vast majority of the workforce that produced the tools of war such as planes, tanks, jeeps, and
other machines to fuel the war effort. This factor can mainly be attributed to the fact that women
were not able to enlist and were not included in mandatory drafts. The only time they were near
the battlefield were nurses, or on posters, or painted on the sides of fighter planes and bombers.
When the men came back, the majority of the women were laid off, and subsequently went, or
were forced to go back to the lifestyle they had before the war. Moving onto the 1960s and
1970s, women were still fighting for equal chances at jobs, fairness in the workplace, and more
overall respect in society. Therefore, it is safe to say that there is a connection between Luans
ideas of the American Dream and the developing trend of new ideas for women at the time.
Therefore Luans dream can still be considered original since she came up with it on her own
instead of directly following a trend. There are a few other things however, that could have also
played a part in the idea of working for ones self. In 1960, a new house cost around $20,700,
and in 1969 that price was up to approximately $15,500 (Money and Inflation). This steady trend
of inflation and the cost of products rising, would slowly continue as Luan grew up. When she
was younger, this caused her economic status to seem even more perales. Wages did rise as well,
but again, so did the price of things such as food and gas. It is indeed possible that inflation
caused the need to work more, and therefore helped to start the domino effect of everyone
wanting to have equal opportunities, to be able to earn a living, and to be able to accomplish their
goals of obtaining what they did not yet have.
One thing that is noticeable is that each generation has a different idea(s) of what their
dream is. For Luans generation in the United States, it was more of making progress both in the
moral and materialistic realms. For example, technology took a huge step in the 1980s with the
internet going global, and Sally Ride was the first American woman to ever go into space (The
80s Timeline). Whereas if you were to ask a lot of people who are younger, you might hear them
talking more of stability (house, family, and a good job), as well as progress, or maybe just
wanting to live in the moment. This correlates with the fact that other generations will and have
experienced things Luans will not. For example, her generation saw the launch of the USSR's
Sputnik, the first moon landing by astronaut Neil Armstrong, the end of the war in Vietnam, and
an explosion of revolutionary musical culture. Younger generations have experienced 9/11,
several modern wars, and an explosion of culture surrounding music and societal ideals. More
and more people are living in cities and schools are becoming more diverse. And women are
beginning to be treated more fairly than they were back in the 1980s. However, that does not
mean that they are treated equally, but things have steadily improved. All these things affect how
the newer generation perceives the world, just as a lot of things affected how Luans generation
saw theirs. The fact is that depending on events, and other things that happened within a
generation, dreams will develop differently. Its the same if you were to place a group of children
in a room who have never had cake before in a room and gave them the idea of what cake is.

They will most likely want to try it. However, it you were to take a group of adults who have had
cake before, some may not want any and some might. Who knows, some might even be lactose
intolerant, and people may prefer different styles of cake over others, like layer cakes versus a
tres leches cake, chocolate or sponge, their opinions will all be completely different. Experiences
influence perspectives, therefore dreams are always changing, but that also means that there can
never be a singular, American Dream.
When comparing another persons story of their coming of age moment that also
occurred in the 1980s to Luans, several points and events correlate between the two. Both
women had to deal with a level of economic struggle, as well as make ends meet largely by
starting to work from an early age. The main differences however, were that the other women is
from Mexico, and Luan is from the United States. The different levels of severities of their
struggles which at the time, included the fact that they are female and economic instability,
depended on the person. Luan had more troubles of sexism, where as the women from Mexico
experienced more drastic economic instability. Adding on to this, Luan has had several official
jobs and career, while the other women has never had a single official paying job within the
United States. She was an accountant in Mexico, but has not held a similar position to date.
Whether or not this can be attributed to race, is up for debate and I will not place an opinion on
that specific variable. However, a major difference between the two stories is that Luan became
successful through putting herself through graduate school, while the women from Mexico
defined her coming of age moment as the day she crossed over the border into the United States
with the man she would eventually marry. Both were in what can undeniably be considered
difficult situations. Therefore, it stand to reason that both their dreams most likely derived from
their grit.
The fact that pieces of their stories both contain hardship which further drove their efforts
to obtain what they thought was impossible. It is possible to put forward the idea that an
American Dream is not as American as its made out to be. These two stories prove that the
similar ideals, goals, morals, and grit can span across races, and country of origin. Therefore, it
can be argued that the American Dream may technically not exist. Something of this
magnitude can not be labeled if it is inconsistent, which it should be, because there are too many
variations in order to put a universal label on it that describes them all. They are all individual
dreams adapted to anybody's way of living, and their story. For better or for worse, they will
propel us into the future, but they will also continue to change as new generations experience
new things they will develop their own interpretation of what their dreams are.

References:
National Geographic. The 80s Timeline. 10 April, 2013. Natgeotv.com.au. 6 October, 2015.
<http://www.natgeotv.com.au/history/the-80s-timeline.aspx>
The Peoples History. Money and Inflation. 2004. thepeopleshistory.com. 6 October, 2015.
<http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1960s.html>