Why I Left America For Good

And started a new life in Spain

Jane Doe lives in the Washington, DC metro area’s wealthy sector and works for the Department of Justice as a nurse consultant. Her husband is employed by NIH, and her 8-year-old daughter attends a school that ranks 10 out of 10 on Greatschool.com.

They have succeeded in spite of the fact that they are first-generation Americans. Jane is 38 years old and has it all.

She came to the United States with one backpack and $100 in her pocket, and she’s made it to the top 5% of American earners.

Through hard effort, perseverance, and tenacity, Jane achieved her American Dream.

She is proud of herself and her life because she was able to reach the United States as an Eastern European immigrant from a post-communist nation.

She proved to herself that no matter how you got here or where you’re from, you can make it.

Everything was marvelous in her life until…

One morning.

She reads a controversial piece on Atlantic, and her entire existence comes crashing down around her like a house of cards built on sand.

How America Hustling Culture is Dark and Empty

Jane was enthralled and shocked by the article after reading it. She couldn’t stop thinking about the damn thing after reading it. After connecting the dots, she realized that there was a significant truth to Dr. Morris Berman’s essay, which mirrored her own life in many ways:

Most Americans have a dull sense that their lives are fundamentally “off” — because for the most part, they are. They hate their lives, but to get through the day, besides taking Prozac and consulting their cell phone every two minutes, they talk themselves into believing that they want to be doing what they are doing.

Jane understood that he was talking about her life; she spent most of her time connected to her phone rather than with her family. Every stupid inquiry she asked Google and acted like a sophisticated person. She was attempting to appear like a success from a bestselling book. But what she was really doing was nothing but sad sham.

She can see his words and reflecting on them:

They’re really sleepwalking through life, living out a narrative that is not of their own making, while thinking they are in the driver’s seat…whereby a human being adopts false values because of social pressure, and is thus living a charade, an inauthentic life.”

he continues. She whimpers, realizing that everything she worked for was a waste because she lived only for social acceptance. Jane realized how reprogrammed she had been for all those years, as a result of American culture.

Who was the Jane Doe?

It was me, but I am not alone.

You and I are just one of many individuals living in extreme of the capitalist society.

And it’s not just for immigrants. We all believed in America as the promised land to achieve all our dreams.

Most of us don’t realize how the corporate-commercial-consumer-militarized-hi-tech-surveillance life has wrapped its tentacles around our throats, and is squeezing the life out of us.

I was one of those people. I, like Jane Doe and many others in the United States, was living under the same conditions.

I was always on edge, out for money and power.

And I’m not the only one. For example, nearly half of Americans said that they would have difficulty coming up with $400 in an emergency.

According to a study by the Federal Reserve Board, 44% of US adults either could not or would be forced to sell something or borrow money if there were some sort of emergency.

Oprah was my role model, and I followed her in my life. But after I understood that it was all a charade of life and how Dr. Berman describes a pseudo-spiritual American Dream in The Age of Oprah, I realized it was all a lie.

I was devastated and had no idea what to do, and decided to contact the author. I discovered the author through Google and followed his blog. I wrote to him on his blog, asking for advise on what to do next.

His response shocked me.

Yes, he actually responded with one word:

Emigrate.

I did put the plan in motion, scrambled all my savings and within 6 months I was out, leaving her American Dream life behind.

Now, I live a simple life in Spain away from the hustle and consumerism. Finally for the first time for four years

Finally, since I’ve lived in Spain for four years now, I don’t have dollar signs in my mind.

Life is Zen.

Life is just life.

There is no wealth, just life.

Life is the message, no expectations.

One writer, one article can change your life for good.

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