If you listen to actual people, however, I can almost guarantee you that you'll be able to find someone who shares your quirks. You might be separated by 3000 miles and have to limit your interactions to the Internet, but there's somebody out there. If your American dream is to write Battlestar Galactica fanfiction, well, there's a fandom for you. If it's to play in a garage band at night and live the struggling rock star life, there's a group waiting for you (you might have to move to a city, though). If it's to work odd jobs during the weekends so you can write the next great American musical, that's possible too (thank you, Jonathan Larson). Heck, if you want to live in a log cabin in Montana, you can do that too.
You can choose your friends, but you generally can't change your friends. Pick wisely. :-)
While you are absolutely right, there's no denying that there is intense societal pressure against making anything other than that your "American Dream." Ugh.
Everyone I know seems to think I'm crazy for not chasing after some promotion so that I can buy a bigger house, a better car, find a spouse, etc. I have the freedom to choose otherwise, but not the freedom to not be ridiculed for it.