Elena Lazarou.
The American dream very much defines me. My parents came here from their villages in Greece and Cyprus as teenagers with nothing. They came to this land of opportunity, worked hard, sacrificed, and ultimately created something out of nothing. My whole life I was taught to work hard and results will follow and I saw that play out in a real way. And while I am not ready to abandon that true north, I am waking up to the reality that not everyone had the same access to the American dream the way I did. Its just not that simple. My parents applied for and received a mortgage for housing that gave me access to good public schools in a neighborhood where I felt safe and could focus on being a child and doing well at school. Even more, I was raised in a two parent household where one parent was a stay at home mom whose sole focus was my brother and I and helping drive our success in life. As I come of age in this new world I realize, and am saddened, that this land of opportunity doesn’t exist equally. Its not there for the taking for everyone. There are nuanced roadblocks that serve to shut the same doors that opened for me and my family.
