American Dreams: The American Dream

“Louie’s”

The sunlight was glaring down on my grandmother and I the birds were chirping and playful noises could be heard from around the corner at the local elementary school. As usual, we were walking down 29th Street towards a quaint little pizza shop. The sun was setting and soon it would be night. My grandmother placed a call in earlier to Louie’s and we were walking to go pick it up. To my family this was a very long standing tradition, and for me this tradition has been around my entire life; usually, once a month we would walk down the street and grab the pizza, but I walked out with much more than a pizza. Many times I would walk out with the knowledge that influenced me for the rest of my life. Every family has a tradition and for

In a way, Louie’s is an example of the American dream that I so firmly believe in; from humble beginnings as a little shop that was opened by Bob’s grandfather on Maholm Street to the new shop on 29th Street, Louie’s, while it’s still small, has made a huge impact in the community. Many families that live in the Newark area, and some outside it, have enjoyed Louie’s for many years. Some are the grandkids of the people that went to Louie’s when it first opened, and because of that it has stayed open so long, Louie’s has taught me that you don’t need to be rich or have a big business to be successful, sometimes all you need is hard work, perseverance and to be able to make an impact in the people around you to become

I go to school at C-TEC for the Electronic and Computer Technology program, and at night I am often at work, while sometimes these really get hard to do back to back, I’m always reminded of the those lessons I learnt as a kid, and that’s what keeps me motivated now as an adult. Hard work does pay off and as long as I have the perseverance to keep on and not give up, I can achieve my goals. Louie’s taught me how not to take things for granted, and how with hard work you can get anywhere you want. Those are lessons I apply to my life everyday, especially when I’m working in ECT, The IT industry is a very hard and competitive field to get into, not just anybody can jump off the street and do it. Perseverance and the ability to adapt is absolutely critical to even get hired in the IT world, and without those traits that I’ve learned over the years, success in the industry I am pursuing would be incredibly hard if not absolutely impossible, and because of that when I’m doing what I love I stick to it and put in all of my effort. I believe everybody has a “Louie’s” a place in their childhood that has shaped and molded them over the years to become the individual that they are today. I’ll never forget those days growing up where I would visit Louie’s and grab a pizza with my grandmother, I have many, many memories of eating their food with my family and enjoying those short walks down the street. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Louie’s over