Origins of the Book
The idea for this book came from an unexpected source.
As my son wrote his personal statement for his college admissions, he was trying to picture the future he wanted for himself. Making money was important and so was a good education. But he kept coming around to being part of a community and having friends – a desire to belong. As a family we’d moved around a lot. He saw us build roots and then uproot them one too many times. As a result, part of his desire to belong came from having roots in his community.
This thought wasn’t new. It had first taken hold earlier in high school when as a food lover, affected tremendously by his own food allergies, he decided to open a home-based bakery to serve those with the same problem. Something profound occurred. As he honed his message, got orders online, and spoke to his customers, he saw, in his own words, something magical. He discovered that his desire to help others not only had a monetary benefit, but he was also serving and building relationships with customers that came to him naturally because of the shared cause.
So, while writing his personal statement, not surprisingly, his focus felt different from mine. He wanted roots that my nomadic life hadn’t permitted me to build. As a first-generation immigrant, I had hopped from job to job, from city to city, disconnected from my local communities, and wanting something I couldn’t clearly define beyond regular promotions and a bigger paycheck.
That opened my eyes. For years, I had pursued career opportunities. Yet he seemed to be searching for more.
It made me think about my own American Dream, and whether I was on my way to achieving it. It forced a question I had never seriously considered: Was I pursuing the American Dream, or had I mistaken one part of it for the whole?
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