The Obstacles We Face Living Life in America

Rob Clewley
10 min readAug 25, 2020

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The pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty for so many of us over the last several months in terms of finances, the pursuant of our educational goals, and maintaining our lives and so much more, but many of these obstacles existed even before this virus came along.

The divisive political culture in America and policies by these politicians that create many of these obstacles does not make things easier either, but the way things have been set up in our country for a long time in terms of the things I am about to mention make things harder on people and add in the political landscape and a global pandemic and it becomes even worse.

Life is hard enough without obstacles to finding housing, access to medical and mental health care, educational obstacles, and difficulties finding good paying jobs but add in these things and life becomes even more difficult to manage and get through.

I found it necessary to write this article for a few reasons, one being that in this pandemic so many are struggling to get by financially, gather the basic needs required in life, and to accomplish things in life and the second being that society makes it so hard to do these things for so many who do not fall into certain categories.

Housing and Food Struggles Persist for Many

These are two basic needs that have obstacles in obtaining for many in our country, whether in a pandemic or not.

The housing side of this has several elements to it and several obstacles are there for people when trying to secure a place to live in this country and some of those things could easily be avoided if apartments and communities would work with people more.

One of those obstacles is when people have pets and try and find a place to call home.

Having an animal is an important thing for so many people but there are so many apartments and landlords who just do not allow pets and that creates a challenge for many who have them in finding housing.

People with pets often have to pay large deposits, are limited to what pets that they can have and how many they can have, or are flat out denied the pets who are family to them altogether and these pose challenges for those who are looking for a place to call home.

These apartments and landlords who are anti-pet place obstacles in the way of those who have to choose between their animals and having a home and as a result of this many are homeless because they do not want to give up their pets (children) in order to get a home.

Another obstacle is credit, people with a low credit score are denied when they apply for apartments and especially during a pandemic, this is a sad fact of life in America, being that the pandemic caused many people to lose points on their credit report.

There are many who have suffered the loss of a good credit score because of losing their jobs in this pandemic and as a result, they are denied housing.

Even before the pandemic, this has been as issue in America. So many people have bad credit and therefor cannot find a place to live, even those who have jobs cannot get approved for apartments due to bad credit or enough money for a deposit for said apartments.

When you live week to week or month to month, it can be challenging to be able to come up with several thousand dollars to move into a living situation and this is why so many remain homeless in this country. These people who are homeless are not always drug users or mentally ill, but just do not have the credit or funds to get off the streets.

Then we have issues like having to make 2–3 times the rent to qualify for these dwellings and if you have just moved to a new city and have not found a job yet or work in a lower paying job, then you do not qualify for most places and thus remain homeless and without housing.

So, we see that one of the major obstacles for people in this country whether in a pandemic or without one is the challenge of finding housing and a place to live, but there is another challenge relating to basic needs and that is the lack of access to food for these same people.

The price of food is on the rise and wages remain low, this poses a challenge for so many families and individuals in this country.

Even for food stamps there are challenges and obstacles to qualifying for these benefits. People often are above the income limits and do not qualify, yet they have high bills and cannot afford food still and do not have access to enough food for them and their families.

Just like with housing, the price of food goes up while wages stay the same or go down and this is an obstacle for people who are trying to get by and survive during these tough times. These issues of lack of food and obstacles that get in our way of getting housing are real issues that all us are dealing with, now as well as in all times.

The Lack of Healthcare and Mental Health Care is Real

Another obstacle for many in this country is the lack of mental health and medical care for our citizens.

These pose a challenge for those who need healthcare but do not have the funding to get insurance or live in places that have free clinics, as some of the cities in this country do.

Under the last presidential administration, millions of Americans who did not have healthcare and access to things like mental health treatment, resources for addiction, and what have you suddenly did and their lives became better because of it.

Now, things are very different in our country with the current administration and people do not have access to these programs and millions of people in this nation do not have healthcare coverage and as a result of that, their lives and overall well-being are much worse.

Having no or limited access to healthcare creates many obstacles for people whether it is during a public health crisis or not in one, either way it is for sure a challenging thing for people, when they cannot be healthy and have access to these services.

These numbers may tell the story of the situation that creates obstacles for Americans to remain physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy.

  • 27.9 million Americans do not have health insurance
  • 70,237 Americans died from drug overdoses last year
  • 47,173 lost their lives from suicide
  • According to the Centers for Disease Control, less than a third of those with a mental health condition have access to care.

These are some real obstacles for people and these numbers are likely worse during the COVID-19 pandemic than they were before, when these studies were conducted.

Life in America is hard for all of us, but for those without health insurance or access to get care for an addiction or a mental illness, it is even more of a challenge to navigate and creates even more obstacles to achieve health and happiness.

Education and the American Dream

This here is yet another way that this country makes it hard for people to get ahead in life.

We are told as kids that we need to stay in school and get a quality education if we are to get ahead in life and this is true, but American society does not make this easy when we leave high school, they put obstacles in our way when we seek to pursue that childhood dream, whatever that may be.

There are three major blocks that we face when we try and go after our goals in education.

  • Money
  • Opportunities
  • Disabilities

Money is the big one here, this is one that keeps young people (and older ones too) from getting that education.

Sure, there is financial aid in the way of federal aid, grants, and even loans but all of those have their own obstacles that students must overcome on their way to securing funding for school.

First, for men 18–26 in the United States, they must register for Selective Service to be eligible for federal financial aid for college and a lot of young men who come from difficult backgrounds were not given that information and simply do not know about this requirement.

Then, those with bad credit do not have the ability to get student loans and for some grants are not an option either.

Money is an obstacle, but there are other obstacles too for those seeking to further their education.

Opportunities do not always exist for all students whether they simply do not know about these opportunities or they simply are not qualified for these types of things that will give them a chance to go to school and go after their dreams.

Sometimes these opportunities that are not there are based on geographical location and sometimes they are based on race and privilege or other types of factors, but the fact is that not everyone has the same opportunity to succeed and get into school as others do and these things pose challenges for those who want to go to college.

Then, we have students with disabilities and the challenges that they face in pursuing their educational goals.

Students with disabilities may not have access to disability services with tutoring or physical access to get to school and they are more likely to have other challenges too, like financial challenges and opportunities to go to school based on their disability and other factors that make life hard for them in general.

There are many challenges and obstacles to getting an education in the United States of America and unlike other countries that have lower cost education and more help to overcome these obstacles, in this country things are very different and while there is a ton of help here with college and getting into school, it still remains a challenge.

An education is important and there is a lot of help out there, but there are also a lot of obstacles.

An Unsafe and Unhealthy America

Another obstacle for Americans is living in an unsafe country and a nation where people are not protected when they leave their homes from violence and disease and everything else there is.

This is the obstacle to top all obstacles and one that makes the others even more challenging.

First off, we have gun violence and mass shootings in record numbers in cities all across America and have felt unsafe as Americans for a very long time that spans presidents and generations because of the gun problem in the United States of America.

Gun violence that takes 30,000+ lives a year and mass shootings that have become an American phenomenon create the obstacle of safety for people in this country as they try and live their lives and achieve great things within those lives.

However, there are more risks to the health and safety of the people of this nation, much more.

We face the growing threat of climate change that gives us hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural events that infringe on our safety and our well-being, we have record heat as a result of that very threat of climate change, and we have racism that puts people at risk of police brutality and hate crimes and yes, now we have a pandemic that has taken so many lives.

The health and safety of our people matters and for some time now, that has been at risk and it certainly does create obstacles and challenges.

Fighting For a Future Never Should Stop

We have many obstacles in this country on the road to greatness and finding our happy place as you can see.

Things are not all peachy like the TV will tell us and the dream we all had as kids of the white picket fence and that elusive American dream is not always how it turns out for people, but still we can overcome these challenges and have great lives — we just have to work at it.

Whether it is getting that education or getting that needed surgery or even treatment for mental health or an addiction or something as basic as getting into an apartment so that we get off the streets, or whatever it is, there is one thing that we know and that is that there are challenges.

These challenges should not stop us from getting what we desire in this life, or getting what we need.

We can overcome, we can beat the system that is intent on keeping us down and making our lives more difficult. These things are not easy, these are real roadblocks that we Americans face, but they can be faced and defeated if we are willing and do not give up.

These obstacles are real for the people of this country, but for every challenge, there is a solution — just know that!

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Rob Clewley
Rob Clewley

Written by Rob Clewley

Author, activist, American. Love to write everything from politics to recovery and much more. Find me on Twitter under my name for much more!

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