An American diatribe:

Looking off in the distance, I still believe I can see the hazy outline of the American experience as it meanders of in yet another new direction

For some, like those who seem to talk the most, the American experience must be some kind of structured environment where rules and order are the foundation upon which dreams and aspirations are built. By using the setting of a suburban high school to exemplify their positions, some are presupposing that their experiences as students within the walls of privilege, is somehow reflective of the more common, or normal American high school environment.

Though when looked upon at face value, the positions taken do hold some truths about what the average child attending any large high school in America today is seeing and experiencing the true essence of what it's like to be an American.

For nowhere are the class boundaries and economic differences more prevalent and acute, than between the walls on an average American high school campus!

School bought, or bag lunch?Government voucher or correct change?
At almost any juncture, who you are, how you got here,
and where you come from,
is readily on display in High school.

Not unlike the lots at any job site, or the office park where others work; what you drive, and if you drive at all, is the bench mark you are judged by. New car, or older, foreign or domestic, the American way of determining your status within the group, is often your vehicle of choice.

As is the de rigueur, everywhere in everything American, some will always fit readily into groups of one stripe or another, but being the land of many faces and backgrounds, often between the boundaries of what is acceptable behavior and community involvement, lie an awkward or shy, non athletic or tone deaf individual who finds no place in which to develop his or her standing.

No way to measure up to the standards set by our overall societal norms and silent agreements, due to language, cultural and physical limitations.

Just like in high school, America in general has many places to belong, but far too many rules
that limit who can be (come) a member!

So then, when looked at globally, the American experience is no more or less than what you take and make from it. Is it not the American experience to live below the poverty level, or to be chronically underemployed? Or is the American experience to serve in the armed forced and become an amputee for your country?

For while some are living upon the hills above town in mini mansions, still others live within the valleys below in single wide trailers. Who then has the firmer claim to living the American experience? Or is that just the point; to be an American allows you the freedom to do and to be anything that you are able, and as long as you can afford it.

For America is, and will always be, the place where no matter what or who you've become, you are always going to be, just a one, of the vast many, with an opinion.