DREAMS

I have never had one dream, I’ve had billions. When I was very small, about four or five years old, my dream was to be an astronaut. I would pretend I was flying through space on a rocket ship and it would make me feel over the moon, literally. One day at kindergarten, we all came to school and sat in a circle. The teacher asked us to go around the circle and tell the class what we wanted to be when we grew up. I was incredibly excited to tell the class my great dream. When it came to my turn, and I told the class that I wanted to be a famous astronaut, they started scoffing and laughing. “Girls can’t be astronauts!” one of the little boys yelled. I felt heartbroken. I ran outside and cried. My dreams had been crushed by some little boy and that was the end of my astronaut days.

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” -Christopher Reeve1

I believe that dreams, although wonderful, come with great commitment and a need for ongoing motivation in order for them to be achieved. Everybody dreams, but only some people find the capacity to “summon the will,”as Reeve so eloquently puts it, to work for it. I think it is essential to believe in yourself if you are to achieve your dreams. Believing in yourself is a cliché that is often bandied about, but what does it really involve? For me,believing in myself means digging deep to find the courage to follow my own compass in the face of resistance and opposition. Even without opposition from others, a lack of self-motivation and hope can be one of the biggest obstacles to abandoning your dreams. Sometimes, that little devil on my shoulder might whisper, “Girls can’t be astronauts,” “You’re not smart enough to do that,” or “Just one more episode, the essay can wait,” and I have had to learn to say, “Shut up, little devil. I have a dream.” 

Once the will is summoned, I have to be ever-mindful of the simple fact that, without hard work, our dreams will remain no more than pie-in-the-sky desires that reside in the part of our minds reserved for fantasy, daydream and regret. They say that if you let go of your dreams, you let go of part of yourself. What is more, if you don’t work hard for your dreams and set goals, it is easy to feel like you’ve lived an unfulfilled life. So I ask you, how inspired are you to manifest your dreams into reality?Have you set goals to make them happen?

Sometimes it’s difficult to follow your dreams, especially when they clash with other people’s dreams for you. For example, I was born into a family of doctors, academics and engineers, but my dream is to study fine arts and design. My family always avoids talking about my dream career choice, as it is not what they have wished for me and believe that if I were to work in the arts and design industry, I won’t be using my intellect to my maximum capacity. It upsets me to know that most people place intellect above creative aspirations. But I cannot let the opinions and needs of others throw me off course. What is more, they couldn’t be further from the truth.

When I feel despondent, I take a lot of inspiration from Albert Einstein’s words: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” This is something I take to heart, as I believe that your imagination and dreams are limitless in comparison to knowledge. While dreams can give you intellect, intellect cannot give you dreams. 

Einstein spoke from personal experience. Most of you know that Einstein is the human with the highest IQ ever recorded, but did you know that he couldn’t speak until he was 9 and his parents and teachers lost all hope in him, thinking he lacked intellectual skills? Einstein was repeatedly expelled from school, but his own imagination allowed him to continue to dream, while his self-faith and hard work made those dreams become reality, gaining him global recognition as  one of history’s most famous geniuses and an inspiration to millions of dreamers.

In my opinion, I think that all dreams (within reason) are possible if you are willing to invest the time, effort and courage required to make your dreams a reality. Although my dreams have changed since I was five, I also know that if I work my butt off at school and study science in university, then yes, I probably could be an astronaut working for NASA, and show that silly little boy how wrong he was.