In my family, it has been said many times that I am different. Whether or not this is true I cannot say, because I am unable to see myself through their eyes. Though out of all the things that they have informed me that I am, the one I can agree with is that I am a dreamer. I dream constantly, without ceasing, throughout the day and the night. To me it is like breathing—necessary for life, and an involuntary action. I have so many goals and expectations for life that I have been told by many different people that I will be a very blessed person if I am able to accomplish half of them. They do not seem to realize that I truly fear that I will die with a half finished to-do list. I am still very young, and yet I feel the pressing of time, as if it needs to remind me that the clock is ticking and I need to get to work.

Dreaming is not an easy task. Dreaming is not the moment when you start wishing for something to happen; it is the moment when you start making it happen. People seem to think that coming up with a dream is simple. You just start wanting for a thing and then turn to the stars or let fate have at it; but that is not how it works. To make your dream a reality it requires hard work, quite a bit of hardheadedness and an enormous dollop of "I'm not giving up."

I have known what I want to pursue as my career for about five years now; and since the moment my mind got made up, I have been planting as many seeds as possible to see my future blossom into what I dream it will be. I want to be a Disney Imagineer, and I have been working towards becoming one since before I graduated high school. When I was only 14, I called the Imagineers and was able to talk to one on the phone. He was so amazingly kind and attentive, and didn't talk down to me or treat me like a child. Instead, he gave me wonderful advice and ended our conversation by saying, "It was wonderful talking to you, and I hope one day, when you become one of us, we can meet in person." How encouraging and motivational was that? I got off that phone feeling like I was floating in the clouds, and my expectations for the future were pretty good.

Now, I mentioned before that dreaming is hard, and even though that phone call was uplifting, everything hasn't been all sunshine and roses. Many people who are close to me have told me on numerous occasions that my dream is just a phase, that I'll move onto something more sensible. It hurts to hear the people whose opinion matters say things like that. I have doubted myself a few times by thinking, I am a very intelligent person and I could get a job that would pay twenty times the amount imagineering would. Then I think, but would I be happy?

You see the thing about dreaming is you can't give up. You have to keep working even when people doubt you, and even when you doubt yourself. I am fortunate in the fact that I'm stubborn. Stubbornness runs in my family, so being told that I won't be successful only pushes me harder to prove the doubters wrong. Just think of all the people throughout history that were dreamers. Then think of all the wonderful things they did when they made their dreams come true. So much of what we have in our lives today is the product of someone making their dreams come true. Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone, Bill Gates and his computers, and even the brave pilgrims who came to America and created the foundation for our home. Dreams are crucial, and they are a part of us. So pursue them, follow them to the ends of the earth, and hang on tight. The road to success will be hard and covered with big and small failures; just don't give up. Keep pushing until you make it. Because once you do, your hard work will pay off, and your dream will come true.