Suburbia: The Affordable American Dream

It’s no secret I am from an immigrant family. Other than some family, my father came to America with nothing. Being the oldest, he had to work as a dish washer at a restaurant in the ghettos of Washington DC to make ends meet. Once my father and mother had me, they wanted to get out of the city, and after years of hard work and saving money, we were able to move out of our cramped apartment and into a house with a yard. 

That was their dream to have place for our family to grow up and feel safe. Suburbia gave us the taste of it. They were still able to run a successful Chinese restaurant in an urban area of a smaller city, but still have a house on bit of land with only a ten min. commute.

With my uncle living in Virginia my parents decided to move there, where we eventually bought a house on acres of land. Of course they love not having to deal with traffic and the friendly restaurant goers the rural area provides, but with the lack of diversity of people I can see that my mother is missing out on having more friends that she can talk to (in Chinese). 

From my own experience, the suburbs were able to give my family the convince and diversity of people in the urban areas and the pride of owning a house with land. For most of us, suburbia lacks personality or quality, but for my parents, it allowed them own a home, to feel like they made it. To them, it made the risk of coming to America worth it and I think that’s more important than the uniqueness or quality of a beautifully designed house.