I have been putting off writing another blog post for quite some time. It’s either because I am too lazy or I just don’t know how to write about how awesome my experiences are. I will at least try to start with my Italy trip. I have been to Paris, Prague and Vienna but maybe I’ll get around to them sometime. hopefully. So here we go.

Umbria

I wish you could have seen our faces when we stepped of the plane in Italy. As we walked out into the Italian air for the first time we were amazed. It was not because we were in Italy but rather because we had seen the sun for the first time in weeks! The sun! Then we felt the sun! we actually felt heat on our skin! Its hard to explain why feeling the heat of the sun on our skin was such a beautiful experience but I assure you it was. The weather in Italy was great! It was warm but not too warm  and it only rained once. We landed in a place called Perugia which is the capital of a region called Umbria. We came to Umbria to go to a town called Assisi where St. Francis of Assisi was from. I learned in class the St. Francis was a pretty cool dude with his stripping in town square and radicalism and all that. He was Shane Claiborne before being radical was cool! I think this was the best city we went to because it wasn’t too big and at this time it wasn’t full of tourists. We saw all of the major St. Francis sights and we stayed in a nunnery right outside of town. The coolest thing we did was take a taxi up this big hill to these cave things where St. Francis and his radical brothers would go for weeks to pray. This hill had such a good view of the valley and all the towns down below. It was also really cool to go to a place where Francis had been and prayed! The girls all got lots of gelato (and maybe I did too) and we had some pretty darn good Italian food here.

Another cool place we went to was this chapel outside of town called San Damiano where St. Francis saw this Crucifix talk to him and tell him to devote his life to poverty and Christ. Going to all these sites and being where this history took place is an amazing experience. That is Assisi in a glance. There is so much more but if you want to know about it just ask me. please I need something to talk about when I get back to the states.

A few quick facts about St. Francis:

- He once striped naked in town square in front of the church to prove a point to his father that he didn’t need material possessions.

- There is a story of him telling a wolf-monster to be nice. And the wolf was nice from then on.

- On multiple occasions he preached to birds.

- He started the Franciscan order.

- He is said to have received the stigmata (the scars on the hands and feet of Christ).

Shane Claiborne got nothin’ on St. Francis

And so I leave you with this:

Sunset over Umbria. I know.

Rome

  “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return” 

     So I want to write a real quick thing here about my experience tonight. For one of our classes we are required to visit places with different forms of worship. Tonight I decided to visit what I think was a Catholic Church but it was probably a High Anglican Church for Ash Wednesday. Seriously a crazy experience.

     I had never been to a catholic or high service before and I had an idea of what to expect but I really wasn’t quite prepared for what was to come. Don’t get me wrong this was in no way a bad experience! It was really cool and spiritual…and stuff….But seriously. Here’s the thing: It was as if I had stepped into some ancient ceremony. I mean it is i think but for goodness sake they were chanting and singing in Latin! It was that chanting with small harmonic deviations like you hear in Monty Python when those monks are hitting themselves. The thing is that it was almost magical or surreal in a way. Oh and the incense! The smells! Even the way the incense made the building smell was surreal! 

     The building was amazing! This place is right down the street from me and I have never been in it before! I was just looking around during the service in awe of the beauty in this Church. I must have looked like one of those turkeys with it’s head up and mouth open. I mean honestly I had no idea what was going on half the time (because it was in Latin) and the people around me were probably like “what is this bugger doing here” but it was still a great experience!

     The music was unbelievable! I must admit it was a bit depressing but it was so beautiful! I have honestly never heard anything like it before. I wish I had a recording or something because these melodies must have been ancient. I’ve already said it but I’ll say again that I have never heard anything like it! Communion was very interesting too because you go up to the front, kneel, and a priest puts the ‘body’ or bread in your hand. The peculiar part is that another priest follows him around with a plate that he places under your hand in case you drop it. God help you if you do. You see there is this very interesting doctrine of transubstantiation where they believe that the bread actually becomes the body and therefore has special powers. You can see how it would be a problem if you dropped it. Also the priest wait and watch you to make sure that you eat the bread. They don’t want you using Christ’s body for the wrong reasons or abusing it I guess. There was wine but It was one cup that everyone could share in the corner and i say maybe about 20 out of the 300 people or so there take part in that. I think it is a hygiene issue.

The sermon, or whatever it was, was very interesting as well. It was very much about our inherent evil nature and how we are simply dust. Here is where the famous, “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return” verse comes in. I won’t go into detail on the sermon but I will say it was very interesting. Of course I went and got the ashes on my forehead and the priest quoted that verse to me. It was overall a very interesting experience.

Did I mention how beautiful the singing was?  

     I don’t think it will be possible to fully explain how amazing Ireland really was. These words just simply will not do it half the justice it deserves. It was one of those experiences that you hold tightly to yourself and you know that no one else will understand how amazing it was. I honestly don’t even have the words to describe how beautiful and maybe even life-changing it was. I will, however, for my own selfish purposes of having this to look back on and for you amazing people to read, attempt to describe this experience here. so here we go?

12:00 A.M.- Lets do this thing

      Our flight leaves at 9-something, the airport is a 4 hour bus ride, and we need to be at the airport around 3 hours early (or so we were told) so we were forced to leave Oxford on the 1:00 bus to standsted airport. I was pretty dang excited. we got to the airport around like 4:00 in the morning and we ended up sitting in the terminal (or sleeping if you wanted to risk the disease infested airport seating) for like 3 and a half hours until our flight was ready. By the time we finally boarded the plane we were all pretty tired but at the same time we were all really excited as well! I remember falling asleep on the plane and waking up to “Welcome to Ireland, we will be landing shortly.” that’s when it got real. I have wanted to go to Ireland since I can remember and hearing those words made the dream reality. It was a misty day when we got off the plane but it was not too cold. I remember the first thing I noticed when I walked in the airport was the signs were in English first and then Gaelic (which recently has officially become the Irish language). Oh yeah and everyone had Irish accents! It was so cool!!! We were in Cork city which is also very close to the famous Blarney castle. We decided why not go kiss the blarney stone? It was so amazing! there was It was like a scene from Monty Python or something. There was green everywhere and a stream running through the middle of the park. in the middle of the park was Blarney castle and we climbed to the top and kissed the stone at the top. I’m not sure if this is going to give me good luck or whatever but I sure hope so!

KIllarney and the Ozzies

     We caught the night train from Cork to Killarney (we still haven’t slept by the way) and we arrived at Killarney sometime around 10. This city was so awesome! There was shops and pubs everywhere and they looked like they came out of a fairy tale or something. It was a pretty quiet night and we were all pretty dang tired so we hiked to our hostel and went to bed for the night. The next day we went to Killarney national park. There was a forest, a castle, and mountains here! It was insane! I thought a hobbit or something was going to pop out at any second. Once again I cannot express how beautiful this scenery was in words. I was just like…woah. Hopefully some day I can go back and hike those mountains, at least, that’s my goal. Then we took one of those famous carriage rides back from the castle into town. fun stuff! We walked around town for a while and we found like 10 O’Connor pubs and I stopped at each one to ask if they knew me…none of them did. Then we met the Ozzies who lived at our hostel and we hung out with them for the night. These guys were pretty cool we talked a lot about ‘Merica and things. I met a lot of really cool people that night some Americans, some Americans who wouldn’t admit to being American (haha) and lots of Irish folk. Good times.

The Irish Beach in WInter

    So….the next day we decided to go to Dingle town on the coast and check out what the Irish shoreline is all about. The bus ride there was amazing! it was very cloudy when the day started. We ended up having to wait in a town on the bus route for about and hour or so and we got to explore and eat here as well. Then when we got on the bus from there to Dingle the clouds cleared up and it was a sunny beautiful day driving through the Irish country side. It was so pretty there was mountains, valleys, streams, trees (and tree farms), whatever you wanted to see in Ireland was right outside our window! Then there was the coast! It was breath-taking!! We walked around Dingle town for a while then we made the executive decision to get a cab to the beach and it was one of the best decisions that we made! I cannot even begin to describe this to you in words. It was like a life-fulfilling experience for me.

The End

    THIS IN NO WAY describes even half of my experiences but if you really want to know ask me sometime. I will probably talk about it forever!! Just ask. please. 

To leave you with a ending quote, “We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.” - Churchill

“Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.” -Henry David Thoreau

     So its been a while since I posted and I’m going to try and update the world up to this point in our adventures. Here we go

The Artist

    I think around Wednesday a group of us decided to go see our first movie in Oxford. We were going to see “The Artist” at our local Jericho Movie House. In case you don’t know The Artist is a silent movie, or better yet an homage or tribute to silent films, or even better it was a silent film about silent films! This film was seriously pretty amazing! After seeing this movie I think that we have no idea in our generation what acting really means. It is amazing how you can be moved to emotion without commentary or sound-effects. I defiantly recommend it!

The Finish guy, the Hungarian guy, Ron Paul, George Bush, and Handguns

     Ziggy, Chase and, I were hanging out grabbing some late-night grub at the local pub Rose and Crown (which is coincidentally where some of the guys in Radio Head hang out) when we met these very interesting guys. We were just chatting away in our American accents as we started to notice these two fellows getting increasingly intoxicated at the table next to us. It was, of course, Inevitable that they would soon observe that, “ya’ll ‘aint from ‘round her are ye?” (that was of course not their accent but you get the point.) “where are you from?”, asked the more sober Hungarian man. “Texas!”, we said. This is where every foreign conversation about Texas gets a little rough and we have to defend our name a bit.

     “Ahh so George Bush!?”, said the Hungarian (This is what we are associated with 70% of the time.)

     We eventually asked where they were from and found out that the plastered one was from Finland and his friend was from Hungary. After we explained that we were not all carbon copies of George Bush, they asked, “so you all have handguns eh?” I think at this point we all just started laughing. At least I was because you seriously cannot write this stuff! These guys seriously have this John Wayne-George Bush view of Texans. We took time to explain that Texas has lots of land and that everyone likes to hunt. I think we were just trying to prove that we weren’t all paranoid, zombie apocalypse fearing, commie-hating cowboys hoarding guns in our cellars waiting for the right time to rise up and reinstate the confederation. Hopefully we got somewhere with this dialogue.

     Then they said, “so Ron Paul?”. This is the next step in the American politics talk overseas (we quickly shoved talk of Rick Perry into the closet). Look, I’m not even going to begin to regurgitate this conversation because I think when we start talking about Ron Paul the debate just goes wonky. The point to this story is it was very cool to have real life conversations about things with people from all over the world.

The Jericho Tavern and Her Little Red Boots

     We decided to take a leap of faith and go see a concert at one of our local restaurant/pubs called The Jericho Tavern. Her name was Lindi Ortega from Toronto, Canada and she wears little red boots. I will say that her voice is really really great. It pulls you in and leaves you wanting to hear more. Her songs were really great and you could tell they were right from the heart. Her music can be described as acoustical with a little bit of country twang that reminded me of home. One of the best parts in the concert is when she covered the Johny Cash song “Folsom Prison Blues”. All of us from Texas went nuts!! She did a really great job and I would see her again any day! This whole night was really fun because her songs and music reminded me a little of home. I kinda miss home sometimes.

The Mad Hatter and Port Meadow

    Okay Ill make this section brief because the best way to describe this adventure is with pictures. There is this meadow about 10 minutes from our house called Port Meadow. This is a very beautiful place. This is also where Lewis Carol is said to have written Alice in Wonderland. The Thames runs right through it and I want to join a rowing team…just sayin. Ill try to get pictures of this later.

That Church in the Middle of Nowhere and that Creepy Well

     off the path of Port meadow there is this old, and I mean very old, little church with a grave yard and a “magical” or “blessed” well. I will also put pictures up of this because it is BEAUTIFUL! The best part about this was that about 8 of us went at 3 on Sunday to attend the church service here. When we got there we learned that they do not have service during the winter. Being the real, exceptional, and innovative (ACU pug there) kids that we are we decided to have our own service in this incredible building. We sang some songs and read some psalms (did I mention that there is no electricity in this building) and we had a really interesting and intimate time. We ended the service, in good A.C.U. fashion, by singing “The Lord Bless You and Keep You”. It is really amazing how God works sometimes. This an experience that I will not forget. Really cool. Maybe more on this later.

9@9

     I want to say a quick word about our Monday night study-abroad worship service. This week the people in charge decided to do a creation themed worship. They set up rooms with elements of creation in them and a room with communion in it. I wont go into too much detail right now but I can tell you it was truly a different experience. There was Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, and communion. In each of these rooms we praised God for his creation and I personally learned something from each station. More on that later. We ended the night by praying for ACU and the loss of one of our beloved brothers. If you are reading this I would ask you to pray for the Phillips family as they go through this time. It was clear that their son was truly a blessing to everyone and I cannot imagine how hard it must be for them to lose him. 

Amen.

This verse was on my heart this weekend:

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

     Okay so I guess its time to do something productive and update my blog. I will try to reiterate my experiences up to this point as best I can and as concise as I can. Here we go.

Something is probably spelled wrong in here.

     Lets start with the night before we left. Me and Chase decided that it would be a good idea to stay up the whole night before the flight so that we would not experience jet lag. This was a well thought out idea except for the fact that I could not sleep on the plane but more on that later. We stayed up pretty much all night watching Mad Men and doing last-minute laundry. This was a pretty sad day cause we had to say goodbye to all out friends but the next day was pretty exciting.

     That morning we went to the “send-off” ceremony thingy where our friends and family met us to say goodbye. It was all very emotional but after the three days of constant study-abroad preparation class I think we were all very much ready to be gone. We boarded the bus and our journey commenced! I was pretty crazy this day due to lack of sleep and there’s some pretty funny videos ill try to get posted later. D.F.W. was…interesting. It’s always fun to go through security and all that jazz. Especially since some 40-year old psycho diaper-wearing lady decided to bring a gun onto an airplane the same day we were there!!! The actual flight was….pretty uncomfortable. I hate complaining but I really have never been more uncomfortable on a plane before. My company was alright though! Nicole and Julia were behind my (God bless their souls) and Vance, Jon and Melany were on either side of me. It was just an uncomfortable ride. Really though, who can sleep or be comfortable when you’re about to land in England for the next 3 months?! I was really excited! and nervous.

      The morning we landed was classic England. Cold and Rainy. I love it though because it seems like we don’t see cold or rainy in Texas sometimes and the weather is kind of like that here all the time. We got off our plane, went through customs and immigration, picked up our bags and met Ron. This is sorta where the real adventures begin. We hopped on the bus from Heathrow to Oxford and we got to finally lay eyes on the beauty that is England (the 2nd time for me). The post cards and stuff are really true. Its just green rolling hills with cattle and grass as far as you can see. It is really very amazing. We got to Oxford, grabbed our rooms, unpacked, and scarfed down our first Oxford meal (sandwiches and tea). Then we were off! No rest for the weary! Ron took us on a city wide tour and we got to see a great deal of the important places and some of the classic Oxford sites. Have I mentioned that I love this place? cause I do. It’s awesome!

After a long night of sleep we woke up for our official orientation day. this was a pretty long day of mainly explaining where classes are and where to go if you are about to die and stuff like that. We also got to see the St. Hughes college whose campus we live on. We also got the first of many talks on “community.” I am convinced that I will hate this word by the end of the semester. Its our core 220, or whatever, theme. It is interesting I guess but I don’t know how I feel about talking about community for 7 weeks straight. I just have to look forward to Italy….just keep looking forward to Italy. Anyway, we spent the rest of the day, oh I’m sorry night (it gets dark at like 4 o’clock here), exploring oxford by ourselves. One quick word about the darkness here. Its really kind of depressing because it gets dark so early. Very gloomy. So Friday night Chase, Ziggy, and I made our first meal before exploring Oxford. We made pasta with meat sauce, a baguette, and lots of other fun ingredients including spinach (which we have all agreed on as our new staple food for some reason). Then we went exploring. We he added to Jericho which is a legendary place for ACU apparently. Jericho is a very cool place with lots of great restaurants and pubs. we walked down up and down the street and found everything we could that looked cool. Later on we met up with some of the other people (Vance, Andrew, KaSuzie, Rebecca, Nicole, Julia..ect.) and then we went exploring some more. we spent like all night walking around town. It was very fun! One of the only down-sides about Oxford is that a lot of places shut down at like 11:00. We had fun anyway. Then there was Saturday.

The London Escapades

     This is by far the coolest adventure I have had here so far. Vance, Andrew, Chase, and I decided to attend an Amos Lee concert in London at the Shepherd’s Bush. We planned this whole trip on Friday night sometime. We got up around 10:30 to get to the train station around 12:00ish for the train to London. We walked all the way to the train station and got a 4 for 2 ticket kind of a deal where we all got tickets for the train and Underground all day for about 13 pounds. We hadn’t eaten anything all day so we decided to grab some Pasty’s. These are like little pie thingy’s with mystery meat and mystery spice in them. They were pretty good! Anyway, we jumped on the train and started the trip to London. This was also very pretty. The train stopped so we assumed that this was our stop and jumped out and down onto the streets of LONDON!! “we’re in London guys! woo!” is what we said. So then we explored London and the first thing we saw was a giant garden with a giant lion statue in the middle! We HAD to see that! We walked around the garden and took pictures with the giant lion. then we saw these huge ancient ruin things with a Church by it! We went to investigate. we found out the ruins were from a church built in like 1100 A.D. or something like that!! Then we went into the church next door (which was a catholic church) and walked around and prayed inside. It was an amazing experience! We looked around some more and decided to move on to our venue area and grab some food. So we started walking….we found a lot of really cool places and eventually got to a city center and after an hour and a half or so we decided to admit that we were a bit lost. We ran to the nearest Starbucks with wifi to investigate where we were. We weren’t really in London, we were in Reading. Don’t get me wrong this place was really cool and I think we were all pretty happily lost! I mean we found a 1000 year old abbey thing!! come on! so it was another 3 mile walk back to the train station for us. We got to the station and hopped on the train to our next destination which was in London where we needed to be. When we finally got the the London station Chase assured us that we were a couple of miles from our destination. Then we went exploring in London! We walked right by Hyde Park for a while which was very cool. We actually walked for a long time. Guys, I think we walked like 4 miles before we decided to ask for directions. You see, walking is a great thing to do when you’re exploring a new city but we had these all day Underground passes. It would’ve been stupid not to use them! Right?! We eventually decided that we were still a ways from our destination so we hopped on the Underground for the first time. I wish I could describe to you how awesome some of these places looked! Some of these old buildings and houses are just…wow. Anyway, We used the Underground with great success and popped out at the shepherd’s bush area.

     Then we went exploring in this area looking for a place to eat and the venue we were attending that night. We found the venue and redeemed our tickets for the night. We had them in our hands!! Then we met Rastafarian guy. Vance had dreads so this Rasta walked by and told us, “You gotsta’ have love mon, if you gots da dreads. Without Love dey aint worth nuttin” or something like that. To be honest I really don’t know what he said but that sounds about right to me. We eventually settled on an Irish pup chain called O’Neil’s. I got fish and chips for the first time and everyone else got burgers. This place was pretty cool. We waited there for a while and watched some Football with some locals. It was starting to get crowded when we left for the concert which was conveniently located next door. The concert was…Amazing to say the least. The Punch Brothers opened up. I’m not a huge fan of bluegrass because sometimes it’s like the same song on repeat but these guys…these guys blew us all away. They were all masters of their instrument and the mandolin player was sick! I wish y’all could’ve heard us. We were the loudest people in this venue just screaming and talking to the band like we usually do in America. It was pretty obvious that we were Americans. It was great. Then Amos took the stage! This was one of my favorite concerts EVER! I cant possibly describe to you what the feeling was like at this concert. It was truly and experience that I wont forget. He has a way of connecting with you. I mean maybe it was just me and my fellow Americans but we were defiantly feeling something. We felt a connection with Amos that I haven’t experienced at any other concert. I don’t know about everyone else but what really got me was when it was just him and his guitar singing ‘Black River’. That song just blew me away. I can’t speak for everyone else but I left that concert changed although I’m not yet sure how. I’ll try to explore my more philosophical or spiritual experiences later. We had to leave the concert a little early to catch the last train to oxford. We ran to the nearest underground and took the exit closest to the train station. We ran from the Underground to the train station (i’m not sure why) to catch our train that left in 30 min. We eventually ended up on the train to Oxford and we were all just amazed by the day we had.

St. Aldates

     Okay, skip a little of that night and we end up at Sunday. A lot of the church services are at night here and most of us decided to go to the infamous St. Aldates. We walked all the way down to the city center and by Christ Church when we arrived at St. Aldates. Its in an old church like an old catholic church or something (I’m not quite sure) but it has the feel of Beltway Park. I loved pretty much everything about this Church. They sing pretty much the same songs we used to sing at my old church. They do have some different practices and some are a little to charismatic for but it’s all part of the experience of trying new churches. The sermon was great and even ,dare I say, filled with challenging theology such as predestination. I’m not positive I agreed with everything the preacher said but I defiantly think that that gathering of saints is blessed by God and filled with the Holy Spirit! I left this gathering changed although I’m not sure quite how…yet. More on church later.

     That night a bunch of us watched 500 days of summer (which I had never seen before). I really liked this movie! cool stuff! Oh yeah ZIggy, Chase and I made omelets that night. They were great! We had our first day of class on Monday. I had message of the Old Testament and Core- “community”. Class doesn’t really suck when you’re in Oxford though. That night Chase, Ziggy, and I went to the pub behind our house called “the Rose and Crown” (I’m pretty sure thats what it’s called) for dinner. I got bangers and mash (look it up). Then we had our ACU worship service thing. This was a really great time because we got to all be together and worship together as a group. More on this later though. We spent the rest of the night walking around Oxford…Just walking around. Its great! You see, that’s the best part. you just start walking in any direction and you see something awesome! 

     Okay I miss all my America people but I’m loving my time here so far! I’ll try to post more detailed stuff later or something. See y’all later!

Cheers.

Hey guys, I’m about to head out to London but I wanted to say a few quick things about my adventures in Oxford so far. It’s awesome! It really is I love everything about this city (excluding the prices) and I love the house we live in too. I mean seriously it’s like waking up in Hogwarts (Kinda not really…but still). We cooked our first meal in the house yesterday and It went pretty well then we went out and explored Oxford for the rest of the night. One of the many odd things about this city is that it kinda seems to close down and like 11…oh well. Today Chase, Vance, Andrew and I are heading to London to see Amos Lee! That’s pretty awesome! I have to go but Ill try to get a full blog going here soon with some pictures and videos too! Headed out to the Mission Bell(Amos Lee reference)!

Oh an’ a few quotes so far:

“I travel 5000 miles and I can’t escape Bruno Mars!” - Me regarding the horrible music they were playing in the pub

“Those little fondu things are gunna piss me off!”- Me regarding the duvets 

“If you had a beard, you’d understand” - ME

” All I’m saying Ziggy, is that I seriously considered peeing on the Alamo” - somebody….

     The American dream is dead or dying. You will never be as rich or as successful as your parents’ generation. Life will be much harder for you. You will have to compete with impossibly cheap overseas labor and you will not find a job or you will find a painfully low-paying one. Your college education is now almost as valuable as your high school education therefore, you must participate in post-grad work or you will not find a job. Even if you do complete your undergrad degree and your masters chances are you will not find a job out of college. Your parents messed things up for you. We are in debt to China and it would appear we are in so much debt that they practically own us. The stock market is crashing…again. You will pay for social security but you will NOT receive any of it. Oil prices are rising…again. We are at war…still. Due to a rapidly globalizing market some kid in India is more educated and better qualified than you and, he is willing to work for half of what you are. He will get the job that you need. Oh yeah and some scientist is saying that due to the last hundred years of relentless industry we have filled our little blue planet with gas that will cause the next ice-age…before we see 60. The American dream is dead. Sorry kids…we messed it up for you. You will never be as privileged as we were.

     Have you ever heard any of these things? I’ve heard them all. This is what I’ve been hearing about our generation. These statements fill me with a wide range of emotions. At first I’m like seriously ticked (for lack of a more serious emotional explicative of anger) off about this! Are you telling me that we’re doomed for failure?! I think this is my first emotion because as Americans we feel entitled. We should! This is ‘Merica! We are (or were) the most powerful nation on the earth! We’re the richest nation in the history of the world! People will do anything to come to America! But alas…Illegal immigration is down because our economy is so poor that Mexicans would rather stay in Mexico?! What is going on? I wasn’t born into this country was I? I think you get my point. I have to admit that I do feel entitled because this is how we (as Americans) have been raised to feel. We are literally taught this in school and, this is what the rest of the world is taught about us.

     So this raises a very important question for me. What, after all, is this American Dream?! I get this vision of some middle-aged stock broker (lets call him Mr. Smith) playing golf in his fancy clothes down at the country club driving home in his foreign made Ferrari to his perfect children and super-model wife in some high-class sub-urban neighborhood in a well-know city. Like seriously?! Why is this the American dream? I’m not saying that this is the only example but if we are honest with ourselves I think we will find that most forms of the “American dream” have to do with money. If I described your family I am sorry I am not saying that is necessarily a bad thing I just don’t think that the American dream should be epitomized as…well only that. Every American child is raised with the notion that, with a little elbow grease and hard work, their lives can be just as perfect as Mr. Smith’s. We now find our generation being told that, “umm…sorry guys…what we told you about the American Dream was true for our generation but…it would seem to be impossible for yours.” What?!

     I think this is where our generation stands there for a moment with our jaws dropped open thinking, “well…what are we now? We lost our money and our power? what do we do now? Who are we without those things?…” I think this is where we take on redefining the infamous “American dream”. When did America start only becoming associated with money and success? Yes, not so long a ago we were the most powerful nation in the world but, that is not necessarily true now. We have to come to terms with this fact. There are other nations and people and yes, some of them are richer (by finical terms) than us. There is more to America than money…I know there is! so maybe that American dream isn’t just Mr. Smith. Maybe it’s that college kid who had that idea to start that charity that changed the world. Maybe its that local church that takes in the alcoholic and changes his life. Yes, and there is Mr. Smith that goes to that church and donates (quite generously) to the ministries that it runs. Look, for God’s sake, I’m not saying that money and success is bad! I am trying to say that success is not defined by money and that the American dream should NOT be defined solely by financial success! So when our generation hears, “you will not be as successful as your parents generation.” We are really hearing, “you probably wont have the opportunities to become as rich as your parents did.”

Okay, I know that my thoughts have been hard to follow up to this point and I’m sorry but this issue is not black and white for me. Its confusing and hard to grasp. I struggle with this (a lot!). So what we may not be as rich as our parents? So what we actually have to compete with a global economy? So what we have environmental issues to face? I have faith in our generation! we don’t have to be rich to be successful! We will live different lives than our parents and our parents’ parents did and that’s okay with me. Our generation loves challenges and we love coming up with creative solutions to them. We can deal with what challenges come our way because we have to. The world is becoming smaller every day and I have complete confidence that the America of 40 years from now will look nothing like the America from 40 years ago. I hope that with the evolution of America comes the evolution of the American dream. I hope that it’s no longer about just money but that its about something much greater and eternal.

     I honestly can’t tell you what the American dream should look like or what it should be. That’s why it’s the American dream. we define it. All I’m saying is that if all we live for is money then I don’t want to be part of that dream because we will lose our money and if we lose our money then we lose our dream and if we lose our American dream…do we lose America?