Growing up, I have always had these big, unrealistic dreams, and that hasn't really changed much as I've gotten older. I've run into some people who tell me I need to be "more realistic" or that I need to "get my head out of the clouds," but I now know that if I never had those big dreams, I never would've worked as hard as I did, and I wouldn't nearly as ambitious as I am now.

My big dreams now may be different than the big dreams I had growing up, but that doesn't make them any less important. Dreaming and having your head in the clouds gives you a drive like no other. You want to prove to people that maybe you will be that one person who does the impossible, and maybe you will be the one who reaches the stars. You'll never know unless you try.

Dreaming big taught me that I can't let other people guide my life, because they are not the ones living it, even though they might like to. Other people may want what is best for you, but they won't really ever know what's best for you--not like you do. You know what makes you happy, and those big dreams will help you get there.

I used my dreams to launch me into all the possible resources I could ever need to achieve them in the future. It gave me that internal drive to do well in school and to constantly show others that I can do what they thought I couldn't.

So maybe we should all encourage children to dream, and never stop encouraging them to do so. Give them the power of their own imagination and it will fuel them with ideas and motivation for the rest of their lives. They may not end up exactly where they expected, but maybe they will go somewhere just as great, if not even more great than the place they originally anticipated.

Life will throw them curveballs--it throws everyone a few in their lifetimes--but it will teach us all to persevere and keep moving even when we don't feel like we should. Dreaming gives children and even adults this incredible power to reach for something that they think is beyond their grasp, but if we all are working toward something like that, maybe it isn't as impossible or out of reach as we think it is.