The 80’s are a time of new music, funky clothes, and new starts across the nation.  I interviewed my dad about what his American dream was and how it has changed throw-out his life.  

David Allen Jr. O’Connor was born on Feb. 16 1968 in Las Angeles California into a lower class family.  His parents David, Melisa, and his older brother Brian was the family so far.  Two years later his sister Jennifer is born.  When he is six-year-old David Sr. and his mother get a divorce because it was his fathers fault in which he had had his 3rd DUI and so he escaped to Alaska so he wouldn’t have to serve any more jail time.  His mother will remarry and have another kid the youngest named Mark.  

David grew up in Las Angeles and Pomona California for most of his life until he was 10 years old when he went to visit his dad in Alaska.   When he was there he met his 4 new half brothers and found something new to him smoking.  While he was in Alaska he started to skip school so he could go smoke and drink with his brothers and friends. When he was 14 he came back to Pomona California and dropped out of high school at the age of 16.  He followed this by telling me that at the time his dream was to have fun and live life to the fullest with no regrets.  He was not wrong by this statement he started to experiment with drugs and alcohol

He was kicked out of his step dad’s house of fighting him about how his step dad treated his mother.  So he got a job at a junkyard and lived next-door in a tire shop.  This will be the days that he became independent he told me “(He throw me and all my stuff out onto the lawn and told me to leave.  So I left only to find a man named Sunny to take me in under his wing.  The year was 1984 and I was doing a lot of drugs for a young man)”.   This is where he started to live like his father doing drugs and running from the police.  He had no dream just the will to survive and nothing else.

I asked what was your life when you lived in California and why did you move to Kansas.  His mother and sister moved to Kansas in 1989 and so did the rest of the family till he was the last one “(So in 1995 I finely moved out to Kansas I had, had enough of the drugs and running away from the police, but I had so many skeletons’ in my closet it found me hear just in different forms)”.  Asked what did that mean.  Responded with “(I went from Meth to Drinking but I had a Dream again of having a family a steady job)”.  In 1998 he gets the job at a tractor-trailer company in Topeka KS.  In the same year he meets Kimberly “(The woman of his dream’s)” the family he needed to start.  In 2001 and in 2004 the family grew with a two boy’s Killian and Ethan, “(But the skeleton grew and he had to stop it so I did I killed Stopped it to know more)”.  “(On Jan 4 2011 I quit drinking and soon after that I quit smoking)”.  “(So did the dream change?  No Because I beat the monster and started a new)”.

PART 2

The 80’s! What was the dream?  Was there one.  The 80’s was after the Vietnam War and all these boy’s are coming back home as men.  Some of these men’s dreams are to rebuild their lives and for some there own bodies.  Families have to deal with loss and changed kids that are in there 20’s and 30’s now. 

Other’s poor or rich live day-to-day making decision on how our world can change no matter the cost.  For some it’s to make new music like M.J. making pop or Run D.M.C creating Hip Hop.  Others by their religion or beliefs in what ever they wanted.  The American dream might not be a dream about America but be about what your heart wants.

Some homeless people don’t have dreams they don’t have anything so they are on survival mode.   The homeless faced life or death on the streets in the big cities of the USA.    Some are living paycheck to pay check but they want to have more money maybe a better job.  Middle Class wanting to have the family, the house, maybe the car but the can’t have everything.  The Rich are starving for the next best thing and if they don’t have it they need it. 

So has it changed at all over the last 40 years?  I think it has a little just on the fact that technology and money has changed since then.  In the 80’s looking forward to college and having a college degree probally meant you had a higher chance to get a career, but now a technical degree might be worth it then a college degree. 

If you where rich you could be anything you could get the best education or the best car.  It’s all about the money and its kinda sad that, that’s what it comes down to, but it is true.  Where you grow up may effect your dream so much or even who you surround your self with.

If you surround your self with evil bad people then you are going to made bad stupid desissions to.  But if you deside to be surrounded by people that are gong to push you to your limits and be there for you, you are going to make the best desissions possible. 

Part 3

The American Dream is not the American Dream it is your dream.  It is different for every person.  Some dreams similar and some dreams completely different from one another. 

It all comes down to how much money you have and what kinds of people surround you in your every day life and if you work for it or not.  If you don’t work for it then you will not get it or if you do receive it you will not feel like you have accomplished any thing in the first thing and your dream might change. 

Your dream will change through out time and as you get older it might get bigger or even smaller.  Who knows you might find out you already accomplished your dream by just living. 

Finally if you don’t have a dream then stop looking for one because all you need is to keep living with good people and good actions.