I hate that we live in a world where our dreams are just dreams. I so desperately hate it. I was told from a young age that I could grow up to be whatever I wanted to be. This was hands down one of the cruelest lies ever told to me as a child. Only a handful of people really get the opportunity to follow their passions, and only a handful of them succeed. To follow your dreams you need more than just talent, motivation, and ambition. You need money, a college degree, and experience. And these will only work if you get a “useful” degree. I happen to be one of the unlucky souls on this earth to love only the subjects considered useless. Art, literature, music, history, and anthropology to name a few.

These were once some of the most sought after degrees in the world. But now? Now they are just useless according to every website, blog, and commentary on the internet. I wish no one ever has to experience how awful it is to choose between following your passions, and supporting your family. When did life become this hard? Why do we accept that it should be? So many unanswered questions. None of which make it easier to get through those long days of calculus homework and working retail jobs. We are told that our lives are what we make them to be, but I find that hard to believe considering everyone lives in different circumstances than the person standing next to them. Our lives are molded for us by others from a young age, and the only control we have is our attitude, our outlook. I have always been a glass half full kind of person, but my optimism just isn’t cutting it for most days.

Who knows, maybe things won’t always be like this. Maybe one day the world will change, there will be another enlightenment, a renaissance of sorts. Maybe generations then will grow up finally having a fighting chance at the unattainable. Until that day all I have to say is, however unrealistic a goal might seem, please don’t stop chasing it. Be smart about the ways in which you follow your dreams, but still follow them. It is better to have lived and learned than to never have lived at all. So go live, make mistakes, stumble a few times, and find the thing that makes it all worth it in the end.