Pocket Changed - Life Category

The American Dream has been silently changing. I would argue that most college graduates these days don’t want to get a day job, live in a quiet suburb, and live a safe life. We want to escape the confines of our childhood and explore the world before we settle down.

We twenty-somethings are the children of the latest American Dream. Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents fought in the wars of the 20^th century to give us the freedom to live the American Dream: The quiet house on a cul-de-sac where kids can play in the streets and you greet a new neighbor with cookies. Our forefathers worked jobs they most likely hated to put food on the plates of their children and a roof above their head. My generation is deeply grateful to everyone who fought for what we have. There is just one problem though.

The American Dream was supposed to have been reached by now. Parents always want a better life for their children than they had themselves. In most cases, their dreams have not been realized though. Their dreams have been exploited and our country’s people are struggling as much as ever to live the lives they want.

• Rampant unemployment for recent college graduates has them drowning in student loans and bills they can’t afford to pay.
• People that are close to retirement realize they don’t have enough to walk away and end up working ten years longer.
• Companies lay employees off without any regard for the fact that they are actual humans with lives outside work.
• People with no money to speak of live lives relying on credit cards and payday loans.
• Waiting outside a store at 3 AM on Black Friday to save $20 on the latest whatever.
• There are lines at the pumps for $4/gallon gas.

The American Dream needs to change.

Read the full article →

22 comments

(Monday we’ll be back to regularly scheduled Pocket Changed posts. WDS was just a big event for me personally and I want to convey that.)

As I described in my previous post about how I had culture shock returning home after the World Domination Summit in Portland, I thought to myself, “What if real life was more like #WDS?”

On the Monday and Tuesday after WDS I scanned comments on my post, read other people’s re-caps, and saw twitter updates about how people were feeling after the conference. I felt as if the air was being slowly let out of a balloon. There was so much passion and confidence shown by attendees for achieving their goals, it was contagious. I want that feeling to continue.

What Would Real Life Be Like?

Here’s a quick run-down of some of the things that aren’t usually true in the real world, but definitely were at the 2011 World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon.

1. You could impress the opposite sex by saying you are quitting your job to find yourself.
2. You would actually want business cards.
3. People would go to the after party and have real fun.
4. It would feel like you are walking through twitter, but you could use complete sentences.
5. It would be normal to watch random feats of strength by Steve Kamb & Joel Runyon at 2 AM.
6. You could get multiple amazing portraits of yourself.
7. Instead of emailing or tweeting an A-List blogger, you would just go talk to them.
8. You would randomly learn how to Bollywood dance on command with 500 people.
9. Each day would be more inspiring than the last.
10. You’d be in the minority if you didn’t have a blog.

And lastly, the world would be a better place if the real world were more like WDS.

Read the full article →

8 comments

Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

Many times in the past few years I have thought to myself, “What is my life missing?”

I moved across the country after college for what I assumed was a dream job and I am grateful for what I have, but I am also looking for where the grass is greener. I look back and think, “How did I end up here?”

I “changed my pocket” by paying off all my debt last year, but that wasn’t what was missing. I viewed getting out of debt as the end of a journey instead of just a single stage. After the initial feeling of freedom, life went back to normal.

My mother says that I have “always needed a challenge.” When I was in middle school I couldn’t wait for high school. By the time I was there, I wanted to be in college. Then I wanted to have graduated from there too, and been off in the working world.

Read the full article →

15 comments