Currently in AS, we are reading the play The Kentucky Cycle, which is a series of nine one-act plays that explore the American mythology of land and how three families fight over the rights to a certain plot of land. Each act has many similar aspects of the act before it, like killing for land, suggesting that it is a vicious "cycle."
Reading this play has made me think of the cycles in my life. One specific cycle I seem to notice is what I'd like to call "The North Shore Cycle" or the "Middle Class Cycle." Whatever you want it to be. This is a cycle of life, that I believe starts as soon as a kid reaches their teenage years. Or maybe it just becomes more noticeable then. You go to high school to do well to go to college. You go to college to do well and either go into graduate school, law school, med school, etc. or to just get a job. So basically you go to college to get a good job. You get a good job so that when you get married and have kids, you can support them. And then you watch the cycle repeat itself with the next generation.
Granted some people are exceptions to this cycle. Some never get married or have kids. Some choose to do their own thing and break this cycle, but it is very rare. This cycle is what your parents expect of you. This cycle might be what you will expect of your children. Whether you become subject to it or not, either way it's definitely there in front of you.
I think that the cycle you are talking about is really the cycle of life in America, or perhaps the cycle of life itself. I think that almost every family, North Shore dwellers or not, has certain expectations for their future generations. We are always striving for the next step in life, like you said. This is a very deep post Jackie!
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