When I was a little girl, I used to dance around my room belting out the latest Britney Spears tune, telling my mother that when I grew up I wanted to be a pop star. Then the next month, I wanted to be a doctor. The next week? A princess. When we’re young, we are surrounded by the idea that dreaming is something we should hold very dear to our hearts. It’s in the movies we watch, the books we read, in the Disney songs we sing and everywhere in every aspect of our lives. We are constantly encouraged by our parents, by our teachers and by our role models to reach for the stars and that nothing is impossible. However, something happens as we grow older, and dreaming becomes something that you’re supposed to grow out of. Dreams are replaced with something new: a concept called reality.
In today’s world, dreaming is something that has an age limit. Having big dreams is seen as naive or immature, or something to be scoffed at. The phrases I see most often being used are, “You need to be more realistic,” and, "That's not a real job." So, what changes? How do we go from five-year-olds talking about what we want our futures to be with sparkling eyes, to cynical twenty somethings who find themselves stuck in a job or a major that bores us to death with an unexciting future looming over our heads? Why is having a big dream suddenly such a bad thing?
When you hear about the astronauts living on the space station, or the Academy Award winners giving their acceptance speeches, or the authors on top of the New York Times Bestsellers’ list, their stories all have something in common. They all dreamed to get to the place where they are today, most of them since they were very young. What’s funny is that these people are figures that we celebrate as a society each and every day, but then if they are dreamers, and dreamers are to be celebrated, why is having big dreams still something that so many people ridicule?
Imagine if J.K. Rowling, a single mother living on welfare with nothing but a dream and a story to tell, listened when so many told her that she needed to be more realistic. Imagine if Martin Luther King, Jr. had listened when so many told him his dreams were never going to be reality. Imagine if Walt Disney had listened. Imagine if Amelia Earhart had listened. Imagine if President Barack Obama had listened. Imagine all of the things we wouldn’t have, all of things we would have never achieved, and all of things that would’ve never come to pass if everyone that had a dream gave up on it when someone told them they should be more realistic.
We weren’t put on this earth to be realistic. We were put on this earth to achieve something. Each and every one of us has a purpose for our lives that is so much bigger than anything we could ever imagine. So I encourage you to strive to fulfill that purpose, whatever it may be. Go be that Academy Award winner. Go be that kindergarten teacher. Go perform that open-heart surgery. Go be that accountant. Go discover that new energy source. Go be that talk-show host. Go out and pursue whatever it is you have always dreamed of doing no matter how big or small.
Never let yourself get cheated out of the opportunity to achieve greatness and happiness just because someone along the way told you that it was silly or that you couldn’t do it, even if that someone is yourself. I wasted two years of my college career pursuing a major I had no interest in solely because I kept telling myself that it was the logical choice to make. Now, I'm finally getting the chance to chase my dreams, and I'm never looking back.
Remember that five-year-old girl or boy you used to be that dreamed of being the next Disney princess or the next Power Ranger? Yeah, they’re still in there. They might not have the same dream as they used to, but they still have a dream nonetheless. Don’t disappoint them. Never let anyone else tell you what you are capable of. Work hard for what you want, dream big, and prove them wrong.
Love,
A girl with big dreams
