Everyone sat down in the brightly lit classroom, filled with empty yet pearl white desks and rich dark blue chairs. Most of them wore deep and vintage colors of blue, red, green and yellow, decked out in academia gear. To most, it was the most exciting day of the year, college reveal day, but to one, it was marked the last day of being a child, it was simply the last day of high school.

After the morning bell rang at 8:45am sharp, the teacher sat up from her desk, and admired the classroom full of rich and plentiful colors. However, her bright smile turned into a frown as she saw him in the back of the classroom, wearing a black sweatshirt.

“Johnny, did you forget that it was college reveal day, where everyone wears the clothing of what college they’re going to?” she asked him. The once noisy classroom quickly turned quiet, waiting for Johnny to answer.

After a couple moments of silence, the teacher continued on, and started to give college advice, such as how to save money in college and such. “This is why class, even though Ramen may seem the cheapest, well, let me just say that it’s cheap for a reason.” she declared. Instead of talking about “how to manage a checkbook”, she talked about “how to deal with relationships, grades and internships in college”. Despite it being useful to people such as Roger, who was wearing a dark and rich red “Stanford” sweatshirt, Johnny saw it as painful.

The teacher then went around the room, asking each individual in a class of 35 students of what colleges they were accepted/plan to go to. Many names such as “Columbia, Imperial, London School of Economics, NYU, Fordham” and other prestigious schools came up.

Roger even said “I am happy to say that I got accepted into Stanford, and I plan on pursuing a career in business. I plan to be a CEO someday”. The teacher became more enthusiastic as Roger said this, asking “Well, where do you plan to live?” and “How do you plan to raise a family at the same time?”

“Well Mrs. Brown, I plan to live out the first part of my life after college living in Manhattan, below Harlem of course. However, after I find and marry my wife, she and I will move to Brooklyn, where we can own a bright white house with perfectly cut white picket fences. It’s all I want, just the American Dream. That’s what everyone wants right? And the best part about it is that everyone can achieve it, that it’s realistic and not so far-fetched” Roger explained.

As he finished his last sentence, Mrs. Brown started to cry, overcome with joy about how successful Roger could be, seeing all of the potential inside the future Stanford graduate. She then turned to Johnny and asked him hesitantly “Well Johnny, where do you plan to go to college?”

“I don’t plan to go to college since I have to support my family, especially since the rents in the area are increasing year by year. I told my family that after I graduated high school, I would work to help support them.” Johnny said. The entire class gave him a blank stare, then slowly turned away from him pitifully.

“Well, but don’t you expect to go to college after a couple years of that then? Or maybe taking night classes while you are working during the day? Therefore you can both support your family and further your education for a bright future” the teacher responded. “But who says that I can’t have a bright future by not going to college? So what if I don’t follow the usual path taken by my fellow financially-secure classmates? Will I not be able to go to get a great job like them, be able to have my own family like Roger” Johnny said.

“I didn’t mean to put it like that, but kids who can go to college get better jobs and therefore can lead better lives, and achieve all the important factors of the American Dream” Mrs. Brown replied. Johnny then declared “But Mrs. Brown, you just said the ‘kids who can go to college’. But what about the kids who cannot, about the kids who need to support their families because of lacking financial stability? What are they supposed to do? What if they cannot follow this ‘American Dream’ that you’re talking about?

Mrs Brown answered, “Well, if they cannot follow this ‘American Dream’, then they will not be successful. It’s simply the truth that-”. Johnny interjects, stating “Well, who says that one has to follow the American Dream to be successful? I mean why should we let this perfect, white, and heterogeneous image set I believe in the 1950s, a standard of how all Americans should live? What about all of those Americans who fail to live up to this ‘Dream’ because they are too busy trying to survive? What about the Americans of the lower class fighting to stay afloat while facing increasing health insurance policies and potential cuts to welfare? Would you call all of these people failures, since they simply cannot live up to this inflexible image of the American Dream?”

Right as Mrs. Brown was about to answer, the bell rang, and high school was officially over. Everyone in the class quickly cheered and left, going down the stairs and chatting with their friends in the quad. Mrs. Brown returned to her desk, sat down, and tried to grasp the idea that was just brought up. As she did this, she saw lastly a young man walking outside out her window, walking away from the school, with his head held up straight and backpack on his back. She stared at him in disbelief as he disappeared into the sunny afternoon distance, where she could lastly see the image of a black sweatshirt fade away into the bright light, as if the man had been engulfed by the sun.