Growing up, I always had a clear vision of what I wanted my life to be like. I would go to college, graduate with a degree in journalism and write things that mattered to people. I would live in some foreign country in a house by the ocean. I would travel the world in my free time and love my career. I would have a solid group of friends that I could depend on for anything, and all of my dreams would have come true. This is how I saw my life. What I didn’t count on is a majority of those things being accomplished before my 22nd birthday. I have been extraordinarily lucky to have done most of these things at such a young age, but my problem now is what do I do now? It might seem like a boastful question, but it’s very real. With my college graduation a mere 30 days away, I’ve been forced to create new goals and dreams for myself.
I think part of me is scared to have new dreams, because what if they don’t come true? What if my luck ran out after my first round of dreams became a reality? Dreaming new dreams and risking failure is scary. It would be so much easier to just be content with my life and never take risks again. But I can’t do that. This one beautiful life is all we have, and I hope to live mine to the fullest each day. We all need dreams. We all need to push ourselves to achieve more than we ever thought we could.
It’s scary to put yourself out there and dream again. But I’ve realized that life would be empty without my dreams. I should never be content to live in the past and dwell on all the great things my life has included. Even if all your dreams haven’t come true yet, life is meant to be lived. It is meant to be dreamt about. I think if anything, after contemplating my dilemma of whether to dream again or not, I have learned that accomplishing my dreams should motivate me to dream even bigger next time. The joy of attaining the realization that your childhood dreams have come true is a high that I cannot even begin to explain. And I want that feeling for every person in this world. That feeling is what I live for. It’s what we all should live for.
