DRAFT -1
Thi My Hanh Phan
Professor: Esther Lee
AMLA 80
Paper 1: First Draft Due
The American Dream and A Growth Mindset
In recent decades, the more the America develops, the more the American Dream becomes famous in countries and territories, however, not at all people have the same perceives about this dream. Over many years, people have changed their thinks, which make the American Dream became variety and unique for each person. There are many ways to explain the meaning of the American Dream.
First, the American Dream is just a simple “question” what you want, so it can be perceived in many ways because nobody wants one thing, and no one has the same interesting with others. In a video on YouTube of GeekWire with title Immigrant Perspectives: The American Dream, it shows different definition about this dream with typical guest. In that, Valentina Vitols Bello, angel investor at Pipeline Angels, shared that American Dream had given her more about freedom than anything else, whereas, Francis Duong, CTO of Flexe pointed out that it is opportunity for himself. Therefore, you can understand their goals and ideas through definitions people shared. From these stories, I found out that everyone talks and thinks about the Dream when they want to obtain their goals and want to plan for their career or life. Today’s goals can be different from the past, but the key aspects of the Dream still surround the happiness, healthy, and success. Even you can define it in your way specially.
Second, we should know that our thinks and dreams can be impacted by many factors. In this topic, two main factors, which impact strongly to the American Dream, are push and pull factors. In the short way, I can understand that push factors would make you emigrate your home country, and pull factors are interesting something which appeal you to entry a new place. In the book, The Distance Between Us, the author shared about her family’s story. The story about her life in her child-time without her parents who left them behind to go to the US. In this story, we can see clearly the push factors which influenced her parents choice to emigrate from Mexico. Grande shared that her Papi wanted to build a house, find a work which he couldn’t do in Mexico because of the weak economy (page 2). Why he chose the US, not a other country, because this country was famous in them, everyone in here called it was El Otro Lado, and it has a lot of money. This mentioned by her grandmother that “American dollars go a long way here. My daughter has built herself a very nice house with the money she’s made in El Otro Lado” (Page 5). The money is the great thing pulling them to here.
Not only Grande’s family, but also my family experience to immigrate to the US. For my story, my parents are direction people for my brother and me. When my brother passed the exam to study at a university, my father’s friend recommended for studying abroad because study was an only way to success in my country 25 years ago, and my father had many friends who were living in the US. So, my brother come here, after that he picked up my mother and me too. Personally, I decide to come here because I want to more success, want to do more thing for my family, so it is just an opportunity for myself. My English ability is a push factor making me emigrate my country, and pulling factors are my mom, the American language, and hope. There is a same thing between my story and hers that we had to sacrifice, but it has a little difference. For Grande, her parents had to leave behind to work far away, they sacrificed to have good things for their kid, for me, I had to leave my father, and my sister behind, they sacrificed to me have a good future. In the first time living in here, I felt so stressful and I used to think about Phan 3 coming back my country. I didn’t understand what people said. I just understood through reading words in papers. I tried to study English, and found some majors or skills to learn, but it made me sad because I felt I was unusefulness and I didn’t still see my goals clearly. However, when I thought about my family, I calmed down and become more positive. In the past, I aways have the great grades with high rank. I studied well and worked at a big company. However, I have to practice to forget them in order that I can begin a journey from the beginning. I now have to accept the failure. Sometimes, I got a B grades, it was surely hurt my feeling, but I could improve from them. Sometimes, I felt I’m too old to study, but let’s do it, everything is ok. The experiences of immigration into the US always have meaning.
Source
GeekWire. “ Immigrant Perspectives: The American Dream.” YouTube, 4 July 2018,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNMU-y_lnGc.
Grande, Reyna. The Distance Between Us: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster, 2012.
Thi My Hanh Phan
Professor: Esther Lee
AMLA 80
27 March
2024
The
American Dream and a Growth Mindset
According
to the Cambridge Dictionary, "the American Dream" is defined as
"the belief that everyone in the U.S. has the chance to be successful and happy
if they work hard" (Cambridge Dictionary). In recent decades, the more the
America develops, the more the American Dream becomes famous, however, everyone
has different interpretations when defining this Dream. Over many years, people
have changed their mind, which make the American Dream became variety and
unique for each person. In order to fully understand the implication of the
American Dream, it is important to explore how the American Dream is perceived
today and how it has changed.
First,
American Dream is very diverse. However, the basic meaning of the American
Dream is just a simple question - what do you want? Therefore, it can be perceived in many ways
because everyone desires different things. In a video, “Immigrant Perspectives:
The American Dream”, the GeekWire channel shared different definitions from
typical guest about this dream. For example, Valentina Vitols Bello, angel
investor at Pipeline Angels, shared that “The concept of American Dream for me
has been more about freedom than anything else” (Bello 00:00:04), whereas,
Francis Duong, CTO of Flexe pointed out that “When I came to US, the main
reason was for opportunity” (Duong 00:00:08). Through these definitions, I
could understand about their goals and ideas when coming the US, and I found
out that everyone talks or thinks about the Dream when they wanted to make the
dream comes true. Today’s goals can be different from the past, but the key
aspects of the Dream still surround the happiness, healthy, and success.
Second,
American Dream is influenced by many factors. It is like our thinks and dreams
could be impacted by time. There are two main factors, which strongly impact
the American Dream, are push and pull factors. Push factors would make you
emigrate or leave your home country, while pull factors would appeal you to
immigrate or entry a new place. In the book, The Distance Between Us, the
author shared about her family’s immigration story. The story tells about her
difficult life when she was young and had to live in her grandmother’s house,
without her parents who left them behind to go to the US for the reason Grande
shared that “He wanted to build us a house. Even though he was a bricklayer and
could build a house with his own hands, he couldn’t find work in Mexico because
of the weak economy, so he’d left to go to the place everyone in my hometown
calls El Otro Lado” (p.2). The economy
is a push factor which influenced his decision. However, why he chose the US,
not another country, because this country was famous, everyone in Mexico
thought that the US was a place having a lot of money. Her grandmother
mentioned that “American dollars go a long way here. My daughter has built
herself a very nice house with the money she’s made in El Otro Lado”
(p.5). The money, work, or economy is
the great things pulling them to here.
Finally, everyone has themselves stories. Not only Grande’s family, but also my family experienced immigration to the US. In my country, 25 years ago, life was very difficult and study was the only way to success. My father’s friends who were living in the US recommended to my brother for studying abroad. Therefore, my brother came here, after that he picked up my mother and me too. Personally, I decided to come here because I wanted to succeed more, wanted to do more things for my family. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t study English well in Vietnam. Therefore, I immediately decided to come the US when I had an opportunity. Her story and mine is really different, but we had a same thing is we want to make our dreams. In the first time living in the US, I felt so stressed, and I used to think about coming back my country. I didn’t understand what people said. I tried to study English, and found some majors or skills to learn, but it made me sad because I felt I was useless. However, when I thought about my family, I calmed down gradually. I knew that I have nothing in here, and I have start from the beginning, but I think I can do it because I did in Vietnam. Grande also encouraged us that “Hold on to your dream, dear reader. When times get tough, hold on tight and don’t let go.” (p. dear reader). I now have to accept the failure. Sometimes, I got a B grades, it was surely hurt my feeling, but mistakes would improve myself. The experiences of immigration into the US are always challenging.
Works cited
GeekWire. “🗽Immigrant Perspectives: The
American Dream.” YouTube, 4 July 2018,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNMU-y_lnGc
.
Grande,
Reyna. The Distance Between Us: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster, 2012.
"American
Dream." Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press,
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/american-dream. Accessed
27 Mar. 2025
Reflection
On the first paper, I have a lot of mistakes. Mistakes range from word form to grammar errors. I didn't break page for the "Works cited". After that, I learned some introduction types and MLA format. They helped me improve my writing a lots, but I still had some mistake in using MLA. Through this paper, I also gained some skills when writing as the attached picture. When starting a writing, I need to read the introduction first, and I also could talk to it, as well. Next, I would follow 7 steps in the picture. Although I fully understood or practiced as that procedure, it helped me soo much. Finally, I got my teacher's feedback although I didn't understand some parts, but I had Loisa explain for me. This is her feedbacks which I want add in my blog to memorize: "Works cited must be on a separate page, and title must be centered. You need a hanging indent for all lines after the first line if it belongs to the same citation. to do this, you first press the enter button, and then tab (above capslock button) ". I appreciated all of you for supporting me. Thank you so much!
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