I've never liked the word realistic. When I was younger, I remember people always using it to describe situations, plans, expectations, you name it. I winced every time I heard it. I used to fight back and say that being "realistic" wasn't something that I wanted. It wasn't necessarily something you should strive for. Here lately though, I've caught myself saying it too much for my comfort. I catch myself saying things like "realistically, after graduation...", and "realistically in the long run..." and I can't keep doing it. It sounds wrong coming out of my mouth. Being realistic is good, it's practical, and it's planned. That's not necessarily bad, and I know that reality will make it's way into my plans eventually, but I'm not willing to accept that just yet. I don't know if it's something that comes with age or experiences, but whatever it is, I don't have enough of it to admit that I want to think of things "realistically".

I've hated the word because it always felt like it made it's way into my head and knocked my crazy (and yes, probably unrealistic) dreams for a future down a few notches. I can't admit that I want to do something for the sake of reality. To me, it sounds like settling, like you're purposely planning for reality to intervene and hijack your idea of an ideal future.

I feel like that's a surrender of your far fetched ideas. I'm not into exchanging my plans for something that's "realistic" just yet. And maybe I think being realistic is boring because I''m not willing to be mature enough to admit that reality is going to get its way, but I just can't do it. Our parents raised us to dream big and to believe that we could do whatever we wanted, not to adjust to reality. There's just some things that I think require a childlike naiveness. We can't forfeit our future to adjust it to what we think reality might do to it. That's how people lose track of their dreams, they think too practically, and take it day by day. We can't lose sight of where we want to be in ten years just because "realistically" we can't get there. It's creating obstacles for ourselves. Should we not strive for something that's out of our reach?