We all had those childhood dreams of getting the job we always wanted, getting an apartment by the age of 19-20 (a dorm room counts, right?), and getting married by the age of 23 (hysterical laughing in the background). The truth is, there are so many factors nowadays that we don't even think about when we're young that stop us from achieving those goals when we are finally able to start working towards them.
When I was younger, I always thought that if I had a goal, I could easily achieve it in a snap if I just worked really hard at it until I finally achieved it. Now that I'm older, I know that obtaining that goal is a little bit tricky and may take a little bit longer than I originally thought it would take. I have to figure out the goal first, then I have to set aside time to work towards the goal and then actually work towards it, all at the same time as trying to duck and avoid all the obstacles that are getting in the way of the goal. There are a lot of factors that we never used to think about that seem to always be in our way, like taxes and college for one thing. It seems like we are always having to worry about getting a degree in order to succeed and have money in order to pay to be able to live nowadays.
Though once we reach around the age of 15, we realize that not all of the wishes and dreams we had when we were eight and thought anything was possible are not exactly achievable or should ever have been a dream in the first place. For example, living in a gingerbread house with dozens of cats and dogs isn't exactly an achievable dream now, is it? No, it's not, but at the age of eight, I thought that was THE dream. Of course, a dream as silly as that would get voted off the list as soon as you realize that you can't make houses out of gingerbread (because that would just be crazy).
So besides knowing the difference between reasonable dreams and...not so reasonable dreams, there is a lot to think about and a lot to do. The time and effort that would be needed to be put into achieving the dream and keeping it. The money that would be needed to be spent to keep it. All the other things we have to get done and sorted out.
The fact of the matter is, we could have many dreams and wishes as a child but there are so many things that can get in the way of even getting close to them that it makes you wonder if you should dream in the first place or should you just go where ever you feel at a certain time and see where you end up? It doesn't mean we should tell our children not to have unrealistic dreams, we should let them have them because they'll eventually find the ones that are worth going after and forget about the ones that aren't (sorry gingerbread house).
