From Grass to Grace, - My Family's American Dream Success - Essay Example

The constant fear of the safety of the families and friends they left behind in the war zones gave him sleepless nights. My grandfather especially had a very rough time accepting that all he had worked for all his life was destroyed by the civil war. This was a bitter pill for him to swallow at first and he still has those memories fresh in his mind since he hardly skips a day without mentioning it. Having lost all his life savings in the war, the money he had made from a laborer job in a coal mining firm in Nigeria.

Since he had been brought up in a poor family he had to struggle in his youth doing manual jobs. All along he had a dream of re-establishing his father’s blacksmiths business which had been shattered by the war, but as time lapsed his dreams became more and more unachievable. Son, the ugliness of the war became a blessing in disguise. As the opportunity to leave behind the dead zone with his young family for the United States was like a dream come true. To them this was a second chance to start afresh since the United States was described as a land of milk and honey.

Getting a visa was difficult at the time when racial discrimination was still high in the US and despite all these to them it was better than living in the war zone. They came into the country with great optimism like the other immigrants, who had heard stories of individual opportunity and the possibility of achieving upward mobility in America. They counted on these promises of paradise on earth, a land that would yield to them all the good things they had lacked in their home country. Their notion towards individual opportunity can be attributed to many rag-to-riches stories of 18th century.

Furchtgott-Roth et.al in their book ‘To make World Anew; A history of African Americans’ focused on a young man’s progress from a poor background towards fame and fortune (2009). This was a perfect comparison with my grandfather’s life, he grew from a poor and war ravaged neighborhood and struggled to achieve a better life for him and his family. His life was full of struggles from childhood to his adulthood; he had to endure so much to become successful. Although this story was written centuries ago its legacy has been resilient, passing from one generation to another.

Unaware of the unflinching anxiety that triggers from societal expectations they started life in a foreign country where they knew nothing about but only the success myths they had heard. Since they had little knowledge of the foreign land they had to face many challenges before they start their lives afresh. It was difficult to get a well paying job and because my grandparents did not have enough education they had to work in several jobs but still the pay was not enough to sustain them. As time went along they started to realize that the actualization of their dreams might be further than they had thought.

With every promise of individual opportunity dangling with high prize, those factors that would demean prospects surfaced. Having left their country with virtually nothing, they had a tough time ahead and if they were to make it they had to struggle with multiple jobs. I remember my dad telling me that my grandparents left Nigeria with only 75 dollars as their savings. With no job at hand, finding a job to sustain their lives was the greatest challenge; they could not afford house rent and had to live in a shelter home in Alabama.

At this time they relied on