The thing about dreams...

Dreams- big or small, old or new, fragile yet resilient; dreams are the thing shared by all of humanity. Everyone has dreams. It doesn’t matter your religion, your ethnicity or your culture. Dreams are something that can bring people together or tear them apart. They change and molt into different things as time goes on. You can create them, or they can be formed for you- created for you to fill out, or fill in the blanks. It is an ever-going balance between the ones you want and the ones you are ready to discard. It is a process requiring a practiced hand- knowing when to throw a dream out or tuck it away.

‘Dream’ is a fairly broad term. We use it for anything that seems far off or distant and illusional, yet it connotates something totally different. It refers to a sweet, beautiful and desired thing but we apply it to practically anything. It can mean what we traditionally refer to as dreams- the stories played out in our heads as we sleep. Or it can mean the goals we have for our future, what we aim to accomplish in our lives. When I began to write this essay, I was not really sure what I was going to write about, I just felt the need to write about this- like it was something that means so much to people that I needed to write this. And so I began. I think that through this I have begun to learn about dreams, what they really are, and why we have them. Why do we have them? Why do we need to dream? I was thinking about this and I decided that, we dream because we can, because we exist. It is a part of being. What would it be like if we could not dream? What would we do if no one dreamed of becoming a star athlete, or a child never dreamed of becoming the president or a teacher? What would we do if we never had dreams of children and a family? Kids who would take after you and do something great in the world? Really, I have no idea and I do not think I would even want to know. Without dreams we would not be. It has often been said that America was built on dreams. It is the land of dreams- built to live out The American Dream. As Americans we, of all people, should know about dreams.

The first thing I have noticed about dreams is that they often follow a pattern or a mold. For example we’ll take the classic Cinderella dream. Rags to riches. The despised outcast who for some reason catches the attention of a desirable “prince”- really anything, it is what all little girls dream of, and it follows everyone for their entire life. We all feel unfairly treated, that someday the worlds going to sit up and notice what they have been missing out on all this time. Another classic is the American Dream. This is the dream practically every person in the world has. It is why people immigrate to America. They come to live in the land flowing with milk and honey. They want to be where they can raise a family and make a lot of money- enough to begin to help others. The modest dream where you can live in a nice house with two perfect children. Where you can play baseball in the back yard and take you daughter to ballet lessons. All of this, encompassed in a basic dream everyone wants to make a reality.

And that brings me to my next point… reality. We dream because we live in a realistic world. All our dreams are different than what we currently have. If we have a 32 inch TV, we dream of owning a 42 inch TV. Of course this is a pretty base example, but it gets the point across- we dream most often when we are unhappy. Think of the poor immigrant living in the slums of a third world country- they want to come to America to live out their American dream because they are unhappy with their circumstances, and who would not be? That is where there is a fine line. There is a huge difference between the TV and the slum. But what about all the in-betweens? I think that there are dreams because at some point we have to escape reality, but what about when we need to come back? That is where a lot of people are stuck, I believe. We don’t know how to live with what we have and what we are doing. If only, if only… Here is the line between dreaming and wishing- dreaming is when we dream of a better future, a better quality of life. It’s a healthy vision of your purpose. Wishing is when we can only think of what we want, what we have to have to make up happy.

The thing about dreams is that they are what we live on. They are more important than food or water or shelter- they serve a totally different purpose. They feed the soul. We need dreams as much as we need to breathe; it is part of being human. And so here is what I have to say: Dreamers keep dreaming, and wishers quit wishing- start living your life like it’s the end and all you can do is chase after what really matters.