I finally watched The Greatest Showman over the weekend, not once, but four consecutive times. The music and theatrics were magical. I remember going to the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus when I was younger, so that must have struck an extra chord within me. The circus performed its final show about a year ago, ending its 146-year run.

Aside from the controversies that often arise with circuses, such as the conditions animals are put through or older exploitation of performers, the movie instead focuses on the birth of the circus through P.T. Barnum’s crazy ideas as he presents a show full of 'freaks. These ‘freaks’ in reality were cast out of society for being different. They were dehumanized, seen as nothing more than creatures, or oddities.

Many could say this is another example of Hollywood sensationalizing, but it also serves as an ode to those who are constantly pushed aside by society, whose lives and dreams are never worthy or valuable enough.

Keala Settle sings ‘This Is Me’ with a power that is especially needed in these pivotal times.

There is an underlying message in the movie, one about being able to dream and see those dreams turn into reality, much like the ideal ‘American Dream’. Albeit, P.T. Barnum lived during the 1800's, it’s inevitable to question who can acquire this ideal life today in 2018. Are only American born, white males entitled to accomplish their dreams?

Ironically, or not ironically, enough, I was assigned to read chapter 2 of Roberto G. Gonzales’ book ‘Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America’. Gonzales categorizes undocumented young adults as either ‘college-goers’ or ‘early exiters’. Immigrant communities are familiar with the forces of inequality, as they suffer economically and are exposed to racial hatred as our own president has further influenced while viewing Mexicans to be rapists and criminal immigrants.

As a result, undocumented young adults grow up knowing the limits placed upon them simply for their legal status and live “with the knowledge that all they have can be taken away in an instant”.

Early-exiters are those who either only attend college for a semester or two and never graduate or don’t apply for college at all. This isn’t because of a lack of motivation, but an economic pressure that cannot be met by many undocumented students. DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that enables undocumented young adults who were brought to the U.S. as young children to be protected and be able to work and study. This program has resulted in many ‘college-goers’, the Dreamers, as we commonly see represented in the media.

Gonzales takes this idea of ‘Dreamers’ and challenges the privileges many undocumented young adults hold as they maintain a “pervasive sense of promise and optimism”. There is a power that arrives with positive expectations, as college goers have often been seen as good students, citizens, and viewed as ‘the ones’ to succeed.

Family beliefs and structures take on an important role as they give praise to the children who come home with good grades and enjoy to study.

Other families, when faced with financial constraints, turn toward assigning gender roles on women, as they are considered to not need to further their education and instead stay home, or clean homes. Similarly, families then depend on the males to begin to work, distancing the young men from being able to go back to school as it’s seen as a waste of time for not providing instant income.

Clearly, the circumstances in which undocumented young adults live through are complex and cannot represent every individual. However, as DACA struggles to find stable solutions and support by our own government, many young adults are being left with no other option of security for their future, taking away their ability to see beyond a year or two into their lives.

Angry rhetoric portrays undocumented people as not being worthy of better lives. They are illegal, therefore they deserve to live in poverty, succumb to drugs or crime, and be sent to prison.

Google defines ‘the American Dream’ as: the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.

Merriam-Webster defines ‘the American Dream as: a happy way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming successful, with good jobs, a nice house, two children, and plenty of money.

According to these terms, then anyone ‘working hard’ would be successful, and would receive ‘equal opportunity’ to do so. If speaking in legal terms, then this should especially apply to U.S. citizens, which are not only white as many assume to be, but also brown and black.

The American government loves to promote the American Dream and boast its easy and fast pathway to prosperity. Reality fails to reciprocate this deceiving illusion. The modern-day ‘freaks’ remain to be black people, poor people, illegal people, and the LGBT community.

No matter the conditions they’re placed under, people rise from adversity and achieve the dreams they once never believed to be more than their heart’s imagination. We must never be afraid to dream, even when the rest of the world tells us otherwise. Our dreams matter.

This is for the people who dream, regardless of the family they’re born into, the country they’re brought to, the poor wages, high crime, and violence they encounter on a daily basis. This is for the people who dream and lose hope, may they find the power and encouragement within them to gain the life they deserve.

A million dreams is all it’s gonna take.