Story questioning the American dreamfrom @sage_taber

Transcript

I used to think I knew exactly how I felt about my hometown until something happened recently that made me question everything. This all started a few weeks ago when I was visiting my friend, Julie. She was an international student in my college and now she lives back at home in the Czech Republic. But we're not talking Prague, she's from a smaller city most people have never heard of. And one night as we were walking around, I asked her, no, like, Julie, when are you leaving? You're gonna go to Prague or Paris or London? You know, when are you really gonna get your life started? And she looked me in the eyes and she was like, what? I'm not leaving. My whole life is here. And honestly, this shocked me. See, I've always thought that really making it in the world as an adult meant leaving my hometown, and I did it. When I was 22, I moved across the country to New York City. I had no friends or family anywhere nearby and honestly, it sucked. It was really hard, but I told myself it was some rite of passage to becoming my own worse. That to really be an adult meant being in a foreign tier, trying new food, dancing at the craziest spots, meeting fascinating people. But then I looked at Julia's experience, which was so different than mine. She lives a short short drive from her parents and both her siblings. She cooks recipes with ingredients from her grandparents' garden. She teaches at her local yoga studio and dreams of maybe someday opening up her own cafe. And as we talked, I realized she was not interested at all in running away, but quite the opposite. She's deeply committed to giving back to her city, to leaving her mark on it. And it made me rank. Like, I can't help but wonder what my life would have been like if I'd had more quality time with my parents or my siblings or my baby niece over the last few years. Perhaps the individualist American dream is not foolproof. And as we all know, we have a lot to learn from cultures other than our own. If you've had similar thoughts, let me no, and let's chat. Maybe we can figure this out together.