Here’s my response to this post by Kathy. -clare

You’re totally right. Sucking it up and just getting through your schooling IS just “part of the deal” in the US. Everyone knows that to “have a good life” you must complete high school and even go on to college so you can get a “good job” to make money and achieve the american dream….Or at least that’s what everyone is taught to believe. 

What would the world be like if that “american dream” of having a great education, a nice well-paying job, a nice home with a lawn, a family with children (and even a dog) didn’t exist? Everyone grows up to believe that this is what a “good life” in America looks like when in all reality, most people nowadays don’t live like this anymore. People have to take jobs that they don’t like to have this “good life”. They have to make compromises and get through things that are unpleasant (like school) to have this “good life”…sometimes this “good life” happens backwards (kids, then family, then job, then school, then better job, then home and finally -“good life”). But really, what’s the point? If this “american dream” never existed, would ANYONE actually want to get through school? Or would we all just figure out what makes us happy and then go from there?

The pressure to achieve this “good life” is just yet another way to conform to what society says is the “best way to live”. I think I lead a pretty good life right now. I know I may never have a well-paying regular job — I may be a starving artist for the rest of my life. I may never have a home with a lawn, I may never even want to get married or have kids, but I’m doing what I love to do and to me, THAT’S a “good life”. 

- Clare