Near to the age of fifty one, Maria shared her American dream. Maria is an immigrant who came to the United States at a young age in order to accomplish her dream which consists of  having a better education and prosper in life in general. As Maria did so, she realized that, throughout the years, society and economy contradict each other every now and then.
     As expected Maria prospered by owning her own restaurant where she and her family gained economic stability. As the years passed, Maria and her husband couldn't keep up with the bills, so they were urged to close their restaurant. With no education and the family business gone, Maria and her family were obligated to adjust to a completely different environment. During the good years, they lived in a spacious house with a luscious, green backyard where the kids played with their many toys. After closing the restaurant, they moved , to a tiny apartment, but the greatest loss was that of the restaurant where customers found friendships and her children and neighbors came together, socialized, and enjoyed meals.

     Moreover ,Maria turned to me with a a prestige face, and in a graceful voice, she explained, “Nevertheless, to make the American dream true, we need to prepare ourselves, because if we don’t prepare ourselves, you can’t prosper.  Without any formal education, many things can happen. For example, if you get a good job and they fire you, then you won’t have anything to support you. But, if you study, you may lose it all, except the education.” once she mentioned this she remained silent for a moment as if remembering of the good days.
  Furthermore, Maria addressed the significant issue of the economy and how significantly economy impacted her life. When Maria needed to go to a destination, her transportation consisted of  walking or using the bus. She mentioned,“The bus was the most economical since they charged 50 cents for everyone and 25 cents for students, but I was not a student so I had to pay 50 cents.” Maria not only commented on how much the bus cost , but also on the increase in grocery prices. “Back then I could go grocery shopping and come out with a shopping cart that was filled to the top and pay less than $80,” she complained, “and now that is not possible.”
      Moreover, Maria feels that teens have changed, mostly in a pleasant way, but others act with  unacceptable manners compared to Marias experiences as a teenager “ teenagers were a little bit more obeyed and quiet when I was younger”. One of  Marias opinion on why teenagers have changed consists of the current technology that we have now  “it depends on what ways you use it because it can slower the progress of the people…or it can be a good thing such as in medicine” Maria latter brought up the example of,  if we forget the definition of a word we just look for the definition on the  internet and when we find the definition we just know the word at that time but later on go on and forget the definition of the word. Other than how Maria explained “before instead of having computers we would use typewriters”  which shows that the technology we have now can be good just as how Maria mentioned  “it depends on what way you use it” because either you can search for the word so you can remember the  definition or because you just want to take a quick glance at the definition.

        So far one thing that Maria has noticed with her children and with other teenagers that she knows was that some teenagers  now take advantage of what they have because when she was growing up in Mexico her family was  not economically well therefore she took care of what she had even if they were essentials, like shoes as she explained “When I was younger my mother used to only buy us shoes at the beginning of the school year and when we would walk we would walk on carpet and try to not get them dirty, I took care of my shoes since we wouldn’t get school shoes often, but now the children don’t take care of their shoes when they get home they just take them off and leave them anywhere”.
   Supplementary to all the obstacles Maria has encountered, she continues to thrive to achieve her goals once more as well as her children whom are also striving to accomplish her American Dream and follow the words of Maria “because one of the main reasons why I came to the United States was to prosper and give a better life to my family, but if I couldn't accomplish it my children at least have a wider opportunity”.