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[lorens05]

First Post.

Life.

At the age of 5 to 7 you begin your twenty-year journey of mandatory education. Your parents told you that you need to go to school to reach your dreams, which is to be a doctor, engineer, scientist, or whatever. But as you progress through education, the hard reality gradually sinks into you; there are more things to prioritize than to reach your dreams. There is the problem of financial security, love life, and your individual pursuit of happiness. But in this never ending quest to get all or at least one of these things, our dreams become lower and lower to the point that your dream is to just be content. In my college years, there are times when the professor asks their students about their dreams. Why do they pursue college? What is their motivation? Many answered their dreams are to finish their studies. The professor does not ask what would they do after that. Turns out that many students just want to finish school, to get a job, and to make money. In a country where poverty is rampant, education seems to be a privilege, so aiming for higher life goals is a foreign idea. Dreams are worthless if you have an empty stomach and mouths to feed. With the exception of those living under the poverty line, your dreams should not be about just finishing your studies. It’s not a dream. It’s an obligation to your parents or those who support your schooling that you need to fulfill whether you like it or not. But when schooling ends, that’s where the path to reaching your dreams begin. During your years in college, this is where you will determine whether the dream of your childhood is attainable or not. College is also the place where your childhood dreams go to die, which will be replaced by smaller but also practical and realistic goals like having financial security or finding a suitable partner in life, some just prefer to live it one day at a time, and some just live their lives like there’s no tomorrow, come what may. In those who graduated college this past decade, how many will say that they are living, if not on track with their ultimate dream? Not many, I suspect. When did we stopped dreaming? When did we let the child inside us die? Are you contented to have a hundred if not a thousand likes on your favorite social media site? Are we all destined to live an endless cycle of utter mediocrity? If you can meet the 10-year old you, what would you say to him or her if he or she asked you if his or her dreams came true? I am not saying that we abandon the harsh reality out there to idle flights of fancy, But I am saying that we are not created by God or evolved from an ape to a higher lifeform just to chase money around. And for what? so we can have insurance on retirement, when we are old and sick?  We can do great things if we just have the will to do it. I know it sounds cliché but it is truth. The problem with the world today is that everybody wants to change the world, but no one wants to try. We all have ideas to make the world a better place to live, so why not do it?  Who said you can’t win a Nobel Prize? Who said you can’t formulate the theory of everything? Who said you can’t produce a work of art that’s greater than the old masters?  Who said you can’t live like Hugh Hefner? Nobody, just you. Because you think it’s crazy. Because being a visionary scare you because you think that the mental institution is full of them. Because you think that someone like you will never be somebody. Steve Jobs once said: Those who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones that do. He’s right. Some of you may know that in the ancient times the people believed the world was flat and there had to be somewhere where the world ended. Then someone discovered that the world is not flat, but round. When presented his discovery to the people, they branded him insane, because if the world was round, why is the sea not falling? But he fought for his ideas until one day they executed him for his ‘crazy’ ideas. But it turns out the man was right. The world is indeed round. Anyways, the lesson is this: Do not give up on your dreams just because your life is hard. There are no excuses. We all have heard about the man who had no arms and legs but he is still living his life. And your crazy ideas today may just one day be an accepted fact tomorrow.