AWOL interview essay:FINAL DRAFT

Over the past week in class we have been focusing on what other people think of the “American way of life”. I overall interviewed 4 people and they all had very different answers for all the questions I asked, but the one thing they DID have in common was the fact that they all thought you need a college education to survive in today’s society. I had noticed that when I would go ahead and ask the main question, “ What do YOU think is the American way of life”? All of them would hesitate to answer, because since they were talking to teenagers, they didn’t really want to tell the truth, they just told us stuff we SHOULD hear. But after a lot of follow up questions, we all got the truth out of the interviewees.

The truth was what all four of my interviewees; Tim, Mr. Fanning, Josie Kastleman and a 6th grader said, that to get your American way of life you have to have an education. Josie Kastleman had mentioned that you need this college education because in American, everything is revolved around money, you need it to survive. Well the only way to get money, is through job! So she mentioned that in order to get that job , you have to have a well-off education. Mostly all jobs will NOT hire you with high school education. There is evidence of this through Mr. Fanning’s interview. He told us about his childhood and earlier years and how he was in a rock band and that’s all he had as his career. He was smart enough to make the choice to go to college on the side and mastered in English, even though he thought he was well-off with his rock band and that’s what he wanted to do for his living. At the age of 32 he realized that he couldn’t live his whole life being in a rock band so thanks to his EDUCATION, he became an English teacher then a principle for my high school. At the end of the interview he thanked his mother for always being there for him even though she wanted him to go to law school. Which brings me to another point that is very important to the “American way of life”…
I think that who you become when you get older and which path you choose, all depends on your family. I believe that they have a huge influence on you become. I think that it is very important that you have parents that care about you and are always there for you no matter what because if they aren’t, you may choose a wrong path and who will be there to tell you to turn around? A good example of this would be , Tim. Tim went to a private high school and then a private college. HE mentioned that it would have not happened if it wasn’t for his parents paying and supporting me through my education. Without them he would have not suceded and that where the part of his not getting his “American dream” comes in.

This all overall connects to our unit that the “American way of life is non-negotiable” because it shows that from as many peoples perspectives, it will never change on how you need to survive in today’s society. It will always be the same as for that you need a good education in order to get a good career and earn money, because in today’s world , you need money to survive, without it you’ll be in poverty and wont have much.