A nation to live in where life may be hard, but it’s fair and where opportunity is worth every challenge. That sentence has always felt like the most appropriate description of the American Dream. It is not a country that promises success; rather, a country that promises a chance. A place where success is not handed to you, but earned, through persistence and hard work. To live in such a nation is to accept that struggle is not failure, but proof of freedom.
When I say life may be hard but fair, I am not talking about a perfect system. I am talking about the kind of fairness that comes from the idea that no matter where you begin, you can choose your direction. Fairness is not about equal outcomes; it is about equal opportunities. It is knowing that the system will not crush you for trying, and that if you fall, you can rise again. That is the foundation of our capitalist system when practiced rightly and when the government does not interfere.
My introduction to the United States was neither easy nor comfortable, and neither was my childhood. Growing up in a single-parent, immigrant household meant learning that if I aimed to achieve anything it would only be through hard work and grit. Every opportunity had to be earned and used to its extreme. I learned that the only thing promised to you is failure, unless you change that, because success isn’t a given; it’s built through persistence, late nights, and the refusal to give up when things get difficult. Those struggles are what defined me, and they are what define the glory of our country.
A direct contrast to the American way of life was seen and tried extensively within the Soviet Union and imposed onto all the countries that fell east of the Iron Curtain. The majority of my family grew up in that part of the world during that time. I have had the opportunity to hear first-hand what people were subjected to under a centralized, socialist government.
People lived under constant surveillance and censorship. Speaking freely or criticizing the government could cost you your job. Religious expression was restricted, Western books and music were banned, and education was tightly controlled. When the Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968 crushed the Prague Spring reforms, tanks rolled through the streets of Bratislava and Prague, ending the brief hope for liberation.
It was not just a way of life or system of government that set us apart; it was the results. While nations behind the Iron Curtain were promised equality, what they received was hindrance. In the 1980s, the average income in the Soviet Union was roughly one-fifth that of the United States, and consumer goods were scarce. In 1985, an estimated one in three Soviet households lacked indoor plumbing, and nearly 40% of rural homes had no running water at all. Food shortages were common, with citizens waiting hours in line for basic necessities like bread and milk. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the United States was producing over 25% of the world’s total GDP with less than 5% of the world’s population. All while American families owned cars, televisions, and homes at rates that were unimaginable to those living under centralized economies.
This contrast represents more than just basic economics; it highlights the human toll that socialism took on people. While freedom created innovation, control created dependency. The system that told citizens what to think and buy could never compete with one that trusted individuals to create, compete, and choose for themselves.
It serves as a stark reminder as we celebrate America’s 250th birthday that those lessons, both from history and personal experience, should shape the kind of nation we want to build and maintain. Lessons of freedom, fairness, and responsibility must guide us as we confront the alarming statistics showing how many young people now question capitalism, patriotism, and even the idea of the American Dream. To some extent, we should not be surprised. Our nation has departed far from the ideals it was founded upon and from the morals it fought hard to protect.
My family’s story and my own experiences remind me that these values are not outdated; they are timeless. Freedom and hard work remain the foundation of who we are, and who we should seek to be. Looking around today, following the terrible assassination of Charlie Kirk, we are reminded how fragile our system can be, but we also see something deeper: through the grief and division, the majority of Americans still believe in the fundamental concept of this nation, the belief that liberty and opportunity are worth defending. These are sacred values. Their form may evolve with each generation, but they should never disappear from the core of who we are as a country.
President Ronald Reagan said it best in his famous line, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” Yet many do not know the rest of that quote, where he goes on to say, “We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” So, let’s use our nation’s 250th birthday as a time of celebration, but also of reflection, and let’s continue to pass down an America that not only stands the tests of time, but one that we can be proud of.
Sebastian Girstl is a first-year student at Florida State University majoring in Criminal Justice and a policy intern at The James Madison Institute.
