Argument Hour: The American Dream

People come to America to try and fulfill the American Dream. From this country or that country, they all come in hopes of achieving, fame, wealth or just something better than what they had, wherever they came from. Last night, I had one of the weirdest, but most enlightening conversations. And after all this, I challenge you, to just meet one new person, every week, every month, whatever, just on occasion. You never really know what they've been through. And it's always nice to see what people have done to get where they are.

Almost every morning for the past couple weeks, I wake up in my room, and someone walks through. Not necessarily a roommate rather a house mate. Thing is, that the door to his room is in my room. That's just the way it's set up at Cong's place. He stays in this musty room padded with noise proof mats and cork board, which is basically a dining room converted into an extra bedroom. Nevertheless, I wake up, and he walks through. Quick and indifferent good mornings or what time is its are exchanged, and then we go about our daily business. He wakes up at 8 every morning, heads out to work or wherever he goes, and usually doesn't come back home until at least 12. But up until last night, I had no clue who this man was. We didn't share a common language, and we didn't exchange background stories. He was just a person, who lived in the next room. I was oblivious to that fact that this man had any life of his own. Why was he living in this makeshift room in Westminster? Does he have a family? How old is he? But all these questions were answered last night.

Cong and I were playing games on the 360, after a bowl of pho, and he comes in. His room is at the other end of the house, but he heads toward the bathroom. He comes out and speaks to Cong in Vietnamese for a bit, and turns to me and asks if I like to drink beer and if I do what kind. And I mean, I do, so I said yeah and that basically I'll drink anything. Where in turn, he looks at Cong, gives him money and tells him to go buy some Budweiser. It's free beer so we go, and along the way discuss the awkward situation which is about to occur. Not only is there a verbal barrier, but there is also the cultural, and age barrier in play here. I get a little background, basically that he used to hang out with Cong's brother when he was still living here, he's moving out and he works at a restaurant, but that was the extent of our knowledge.

We head back, and there he was, waiting on the beer. Unsure about how to approach the situation, knowing that he wanted to hang out, Cong and I just head inside. Started up the game again, and let him settle down with his can of Bud. He hands me one and the story telling begins. We learn that he came out to California, from Dallas, one of America's top 3 little Saigon's, to work. His Dad is here and other than that he is basically in America by himself. He shares his stories, of where he works, and what his experience is like. And basically, this man is caught in the middle of the American Dream. He came to America at a reasonably young age, in hopes to make something better for himself. He works ten hours, seven days a week, in a Chinese restaurant 45 minutes from here. And basically other than Cong's brother who he no longer talks to, and his dad who has to be at least 70, he has no real human interaction. He explains, the loneliness of working 70 hour work weeks, in a environment full of Spanish speaking cooks and Chinese speaking wait staff. The despair of being away from his wife and kids for so long. And the aspirations of a better future, he hopes to find here in America. He then explains to me how he tried to talk to me, despite the language barrier, asking the time and what not that it was nice talking to us, then thanks us for being such kind listeners and heads off to bed. A whole new perspective on life opened up there. The person living 5 feet away from me in the other room, is just a man caught in a dream.