As young people today, we can all tell that the idea of success in America has become harder and harder to grasp in recent generations. This has come especially out of lack of support for taking risks. As the American Dream becomes more of an imaginary concept, we are beginning to lose the ideals that built our nation.

Now, what exactly is the “American Dream?" Merriam-Webster defines it as "a happy way of living which can be achieved through hard work, including a good job, nice house, two children, and enough money to spend excessively on wants and needs."

This definition differs from the original purpose of the term, which was coined in 1931 in James Truslow Adams’s book, The Epic of America. In his book, he says, “ It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order, in which each man and woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable.”

So, really, the original idea of the term was not meant to define a society where everyone was perfect, but one that allowed each individual to define what perfect was to them. Whether it indeed meant working a 9-5 job, coming home to your wife and two kids to a hot meal, or never settling down, living differently each day. The American Dream meant that there was something for everyone.

The way we are beginning to perceive the American Dream has corrupted our society into one that aspires to think the same, rather than independently. Today, the idea of success in America can only be achieved by taking the safe route, and we see this everywhere.

Imagine your typical middle-class, suburban soccer mom, who’s only thrill in life is having that extra glass of wine at her neighbor Becky’s Christmas party. Now, 30 years prior, do you think she was playing with her middle class cul-de-sac Barbie, or her Malibu Dream House Barbie? Did she want to be a housewife, or an astronaut?

Now, I don’t know about you, but I definitely know my five year-old self would have much rather come home from space everyday to my Malibu Dream House, but now, I know better, because now I’ve grown up. And this is what people are teaching their children now. When we dream big, we’re told to grow up, to snap back to reality, when really, we should be told to work harder.

It is for these reasons that we are seeing a growing trend in high school and college dropouts, and the increasing difficulty people have finding a job as a result of this. Our job market relies solely on those who have a predetermined access to wealth and education, rather than talent or skill. To solve this issue, we cannot continue to take the safe route, nor simply dream big. In order to truly reverse the direction our economy is headed in, we must work harder.

As a nation, and as individuals, we must all once again strive to achieve greatness. While we will always have that upper-middle class standard of living, we cannot continue the pattern of teaching our children that it is the best they can do. we need to ask them how they want to live, not what they want to be. We need to once again become a society more accustomed to taking risks.