This American Life

I didn't really find myself enjoying NPR until I got into high school.

I wanted B96 on family car rides, but I got "This American Life" with Ira Glass instead.

For those of you unfamiliar with "This American Life," it's a radio program that examines different social themes. Recently they've taken "This American Life" to cable and now it appears on Showtime every Sunday night.

Today's episode got me thinking; one of the segments dealt with the idea of time in high school- "will we really remember the things that bother us most today?"

Will I remember making the vital choice to take AP Math over regular?

Will I really think back on my years at Stevenson and remember how much I didn't want to serve my two detentions?

The fact that over three years I skipped one class?

The social system at stevenson values these kinds of trivial thoughts as major stepping stones. I feel that according to my counselors one of the most important decisions I can make is to choose to GPA waiver an elective or opt for a level change.

But the truth is I won't remember most of high school. I hope to remember my favorite English teacher. I can never forget my grandmother's funeral, the accident with my mouth, my first real boyfriend...

So little of what I do matters to my memory.

So many things that society stresses are really meaningless in the long run.

I'd like to think that when I settle down, my high school GPA won't mean a thing.

Its true nature will be forever unknown.

If my kids ask me I can lie comfortably knowing that I had better things to remember than that.

This is a clip from an episode of "This American Life," it poses a few different sociological questions- see for yourself.

The Future of my Future

While the graduation lunch following my sister's "commencement" ceremony from UIC was delicious, it was also unnecessarily stressful.

After the congratulatory toast all talk turned to the future and money. How was she going to make a living? Was she going to move out to San Diego and work in a big Pharm Company? Was she going to go for her Masters in Medicine?

And then the conversation shifted gently over into my future.

My aunt and uncle are firm believers in realism. In fact they absolutely have no faith in my romantic ideas of majoring in writing and journalism.

My parents are firm enough supporters of what I want to do with my life but my aunt and uncle never miss a beat to tell me that I will make bad money. They're probably right. There's not a huge chance that I will ever make a lot of money in journalism and freelance writing unless I stand out enough. I'm hoping that I will- but this is a big dream. I could quite possibly never make more than fifty grand.

Yet, this isn't a disgusting salary. Matched with a salary of a partner of about equal earning I will still have more money than most of America.

But with a salary so much smaller than the one I live under now will I really live in my idea of "comfort?"

My aunt and uncle say no.

I'm not really sure what the answer is.

We've been socially programmed to reach for money before reaching for something that might make us happier.

Of course I can major in business and take over my father's company- i'll make a nice chunk of cash, but that thought doesn't inspire me.

I'm inspired by the idea of writing regardless of the outlet.

I don't think i'm the only one that faces this problem.

Art School Versus Law?

It's clear your chances of stability are better with law but will this stability really bring you happiness?

I'd like to think I would rather enjoy going to work than waiting desperately to go home everday...regardless the salary.

What do you think?

Moving Up

My parents came to America with four hundred dollars and a two year old baby in an effort to live the "American Dream."

My mother washed dishes and my dad did clerical work, both earning barely enough to sustain a family of what would soon become four.

They've come a long way in the past eighteen years in a prime example of immigrants achieving that "American Dream."

Or have they achieved it?

Has anyone that's moved up in the economical ranks?

I moved to Vernon Hills in the middle of seventh grade from the very comfortable suburb of Buffalo Grove. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy move because I had to switch from one junior high to another, but I would never have guessed the magnitude of difference between the two areas.

I used to think a house that cost six hundred thousand dollars was expensive, but according to my new surroundings I was mistaken. A great deal of my classmates lived in gated communities, homes that ranged upwards of a million dollars. I was proud of my new townhouse until I met two kids who had indoor pools.

I moved five miles away but this was a whole different world, one I still can't totally understand.

My family has grown more economcially sound over the past few years; we've upgraded cars, we've gone skiing in France, we've remodeled the kitchen- but even with our very comfortable ecomomic status we aren't in the same class system as some families that live down the road.

The biggest sign of status that we lack is Country Club membership.

I had little idea about the politics of the Country Club until I got to talking with a few friends who know all about it; some of them because they have elite membership, others because they have faced Royal rejection.

I've been browsing the internet for a while now trying to find the exact prices for membership to certain Country Clubs, but the real yearly cost of membership to a place like Twin Orchards (members include Michael Jordan) or Royal Melbourne is unbeknownst to me; my friends claim that just a golfer's membership to Royal Melbourne is seventy five grand, and i'm figuring the more prestigious Twin Orchards costs at least eighty thousand.

In order to be a part of one of these fanciful institutions you must be invited. Some will tell you it's a good idea to make friends with your neighbors because they just might be sitting on the board of one of these special places. That's how some people dig their way in- they make "friends" with the whole damn neighborhood in a pitiful effort to find someone who happens to wield power over at some Country Club.

After the invitation there is of course the interview process where someone from the Country Club will come to your home to judge you and your family. I can only imagine this to be very nerve wracking. You're opening yourself up so that someone can either peg you adequate or inadequate, and god forbid you are pegged inadequate you will just be some rich outcast.

After careful scrutiny you will either be denied or given the right to pay upwards of one hundred thousand dollars a year to mention to your friends and coworkers that you are a member of a Country Club, and that one day you will play eight holes with Michael Jordan. I'm sure this feelinhg is magical.

The Country Club is what we really consider the "American Dream" in these here parts. This status isn't cheap but just because you can afford it doesn't mean you get to have it anyway. I guess you have to be a certain kind of rich (cough white cough WASP or JEW cough WHITE cough no immigrants cough cough cough.)

I've never heard of first generation Ukrainian immigrants playing golf, or being invited to play golf privately on the expensive Twin Orchards green.

My family lives a good life, better than most, maybe even better than that of some Country Club members but we are not officially upper class.

We won't ever be officially upper class, and unless I marry someone of higher status or make so much money that a Country Club is almost obliged to let me in I don't see myself being invited inside in the near future.

However my boyfriend did promise he would take me Twin Orchards for dinner over the Summer so that should make for an interesting blog...

We have a class system in this country and its lines are not so hazy like some may think. Most of us consider ourselves middle class even if we make more than the middle income or less because regardless of our paychecks we do in fact hold this middle status. We aren't Country Club elite or poor enough to be dubbed into the lower class redneck or ghetto fabulous culture so most of us are stuck in this middle ground; we're a huge group of Americans trying to achieve this "American Dream," but in our eyes achievment seems to identify itself with Country Clubs and the Hamptons- and we might not ever get there. This middle class seems worse off than the rest because it lacks the establishment of any kind of culture. We are just stuck inside a giant limbo.