Are We Just Existing?

The other night I was driving home from my my dad's house and a thought crossed my mind: "When was the last time you felt a passion for living?"
This was a strange thought for me because I am a very passionate person by nature...I have strong convictions, aspirations to help society, and the unshakeable reputation of an indefatigable optimist. So to wonder, even to myself, when was the last time I felt truly inspired about living, was troubling to me.
But really, what do we have in this drab, materialistic existence to feel passionate about on a daily basis? So many of us go to work day in and day out at jobs we can barely tolerate, just to scrape up enough change to pay our stacks of bills and feed the debt monkey on our backs. Most of us can't even afford to take a day off, much less take our kids to Disneyworld.  We go into debt to put Christmas gifts under the tree...we can't afford to be sick, and if we do get sick we can't afford to see a doctor. Squeezing groceries into our budgets is a feat of financial acrobatics worthy of national recognition. Hell, I am currently trying to make $36 last another eight days until I get paid. All I look forward to these days are weekends, watching The Voice, and spending time with my family. Is that enough? Is that typical of the American working class in this day and age? Because where is the passion in that? Where is the adventure? Where do we find inspiration in lives like this?
I am returning to my studies in two months time. It seems far away from where I am now, but it is still something to look forward to. I know my passion will be reignited once I am pursuing my goals, and that gives me comfort. But I can't help the ache I feel inside when I think about all of the working class people out there slaving away just to exist...with so little to look forward to.
We all know by now that the American Dream is dead. And with people like Donald Trump and Scott Walker in charge, resurrecting that dream is not happening anytime soon. But I refuse to believe that there is no hope for the working class, or that the days when hard work and integrity were all you needed to get ahead have been relegated to the distant past. It is hard to find the motivation to fight when all you are is one small voice against a whole system of injustice...but then I remember...a whole lot of small voices combined can make a really loud noise. 
So I keep fighting...and maybe someday soon we'll all have more to look forward to.

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